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2nd February 2010 Archive

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  • Ingres' VectorWise rises to answer Microsoft

    Open-source stealth project slips out

    Ingres is inviting data munchers to take a bite out of its planned software architecture targeting high-performance analytics. The open-source database company has released alpha code for its VectorWise project, a high-performance storage engine computing-intensive data warehouses running on standard Intel boxes. A first beta …

    Developer 2 Feb 2010, 05:24

  • Chinese tablet maven threatens iPad suit

    'Apple stole our design!'

    A Chinese company is crying foul in one of the sillier "We were here first!" disputes that The Reg has seen in quite some time. "I was very angry and suprised two days ago when I saw the news of the iPad presentation," the president of Shenzhen Great Loong Brother, Wu Xiaolong, told Spanish news site El Mundo, according to …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Windows 7 RC 'buy a copy' shut downs start next month

    Updated Buy the OS or your data gets it

    Microsoft will soon put the screws on those still running last year's free preview of Windows 7 by incessantly shutting down their PC. Starting on February 15, Windows 7 Release Candidate will begin displaying a friendly notice every few hours to either get paying or get bent. Come March 1, the PC will begin a regimen of …

    Operating Systems 2 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Simpana joins the cloud crowd

    Vaulting ambition

    CommVault has added a cloud connector to its Simpana archiving package so customers can archive data to disk or to various vaults in the sky. Simpana is a data protection and management software suite that can store deduplicated data on tape, in drive arrays and now in the cloud, what Simpana calls "far line" storage. It's …

    Storage 2 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Dear Google: Just how mammoth is your search share?

    Surely, you know best

    Just how big is Google's share of the all-important web search market? According to the market-research types at comScore, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory controls about 66 per cent of all searches - at least in the US. Meanwhile, HitWise puts that figure closer to 72 per cent. But surely, there's one organization that's …

    Media 2 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Politicos bid to stop Microsoft's cloud migration

    Windows Azure opens for business

    Politicians in Microsoft's home state of Washington are debating legislation to stop cloud data centers drifting to other parts of the country. The bill would provide a 15-month exemption on paying tax on the purchase and installation of PCs and energy to companies building data centers in rural parts of the state. The debate …

    Developer 2 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Web attacks cripple Russia's biggest indie newspaper

    Seven days and counting

    The website of Russia's highest-profile independent newspaper on Monday suffered its seventh straight day of crippling denial-of-service attacks by unknown miscreants. Novayagazeta.ru remained unreachable at time of writing, the result of a week of powerful attacks that during their peak delivered more than 1.5 million visits …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Retailers fooled by fake and borrowed IDs

    Back in the day you just had to remember someone else's birthday

    Kids in the UK are experts in using fake IDs bought online or using someone else's documents to get their hands on age-restricted products. Half of those surveyed have bought alcohol while underage and one in five have bought knives. One in five kids use fake ID cards bought online mostly to get into pubs and clubs. More …

    Government 2 Feb 2010, 09:05

  • Directgov battles terrorism with report-a-website page

    Watch out YouTube

    The Home Office has launched a page for people to report online extremism and terror-related content. The section of the Directgov website will link directly to a team within the Association of Chief Police Officers Prevent Delivery Unit for investigation. The site starts by checking people are not trying to report an actual …

    Government 2 Feb 2010, 10:01

  • Security firms plot revamp to minimise false alarms

    Analysis Whitelisted addresses to reside in heavenly cloud

    Increased incidents of false positives have encouraged anti-virus firms to re-evaluate their signature update process. Last week, misfiring updates from Symantec falsely categorised Spotify and Adobe Flash as malicious in two separate incidents. The week before a ropey update from Kaspersky Lab falsely flogged Google AdWords …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 10:27

  • Pillar rejigs Axiom for flash

    Bring us a brick

    Pillar is redesigning its Axiom storage array technology to use NAND flash memory better, with disk drives used for commodity storage. Pillar CEO Mike Workman has blogged "A trend toward SSDs over HDDs will cause all storage arrays to be re-architected. Today’s arrays are not built properly for maximum utilization of the …

    Storage 2 Feb 2010, 10:32

  • Transformers up for seven Razzies

    'Over-loud, over-long, uber-stupid'

    The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation has announced its nominations for the 30th Annual Razzie Awards, which will "dis-honor The Worst of the 'Uh-Ohs'" inflicted on cinemagoers during 2009. Leading the race to mount the podium of shame is Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, described as "over-loud, over-long, …

    Bootnotes 2 Feb 2010, 10:54

  • Most consumers reuse banking passwords on other sites

    Password recycle fail leaves consumers ripe for harvesting

    The majority of online banking customers reuse their online-banking login credentials on other websites, according to a new survey on password insecurity. Online security firm Trusteer reports that 73 per cent of bank customers use their online account password to access at least one other, less sensitive website. Even worse, …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 11:03

  • Can virtualisation reduce the management overhead?

    Lab Yes and no. Maybe

    Server virtualisation is quickly becoming a mainstream route by which IT services are delivered. Already much of the “low hanging fruit” has been identified, with server consolidation projects providing an entry point for virtualisation. But after such implementation projects are completed the challenge will become one of …

    Virtualisation Lab 2 Feb 2010, 11:13

  • iPad runs Windows, Nokia runs OSX

    Black is east, up is white... argh!

    Citrix has been demonstrating Windows 7 running on an iPad, as a dumb client at least, while a Finn has hacked OSX to the N900 for no very good reason. Images of Apple's iPad running Windows 7 have been floating around the internet thanks to Citrix, which has got its dumb-terminal Windows client running for the BOFH who wants …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2010, 11:13

  • ID minister promises virtual immortality for all Britons

    National ID register will hold the quick and the dead

    The government has guaranteed virtual immortality for every British citizen - as long as they join the National Identity Register. In a Commons answer yesterday ID card minister Meg Hillier confirmed that once you're on the register, nothing will remove you - not even death. She was answering a question from Francis Maude MP …

    Government 2 Feb 2010, 11:40

  • Spiderman Beetleman wall-crawl glove/boot tech invented

    Does whatever certain kinds of beetle can

    Boffins in the US say they have made a step upward in the quest for miracle switch-on, switch-off sticky devices that could allow people to walk on walls and ceilings in superhero crimefighter style. The device, brainchild of US profs Paul Steen and Michael Vogel, works using the surface tension of water. Just as two glass …

    Science 2 Feb 2010, 11:43

  • Head of Stats warns politicians: 'Hands off our numbers!'

    "No sh*t, Sherlock" moment after public confidence warning

    UK Party leaders were this week on the receiving end of a sharp rap to the knuckles, as a letter from the Head of the UK Statistics Authority, the aptly named Sir Michael Scholar, warned them to keep their paws off official stats for the duration of the election campaign. The letter is a masterpiece of understatement, …

    Government 2 Feb 2010, 11:45

  • Sony Ericsson preps BlackBerry-style WinMo phone

    Aspen skiis in

    Sony Ericsson (SE) has taken another stab at Windows Mobile, launching a business-grade handset based on the Microsoft mobile OS. Sony Ericsson's Aspen: WinMo 6.5.3-based and slightly eco-friendly SE's only Windows Mobile device to date was the Xperia X1. The new model, called the Aspen, runs Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the most …

    Phones 2 Feb 2010, 11:58

  • FujiFilm intros 'ultimate' all-in-one camera

    A bridge to fear?

    FujiFilm has launched a bridge camera touted simply as the “ultimate” all-in-one shooter. FujiFilm's HS10: the "ultimate" all-in-one camera? The FinePix HS10’s 24-720mm integrated mechanical lens offers an impressive 30x optical zoom. Images are snapped at 10.3Mp. Taking its lead from many existing digital SLRs, the HS10 …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 12:01

  • Amazon Kindle DX

    Review What a difference extra inches make

    It took Amazon's Kindle 2 a good while to escape from Uncle Sam's backyard but less than three months more for the international version of the Kindle DX to arrive. Before we even laid hands on the DX we knew it was both bigger and more expensive, but is it any better? The most obvious difference between the DX and Amazon's …

    Tablets 2 Feb 2010, 12:02

  • Femtocells wilt under attack

    Tiny, tiny, tiny root box danger

    Security researchers have turned their attention to femtocells, and have discovered that gaining root on the tiny mobile base stations isn't as hard as one might hope. Researchers working for TrustWave will present details of their successful attacks against femtocells at the ShmooCon security conference next week in …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2010, 12:08

  • eBay cans free P&P requirement

    Pleases some, infuriates others

    eBay is canning the requirement for sellers to offer free postage and packing on certain items, after a long-running campaign by sellers. Back in the day the oldest eBay scam was charging exorbitant rates for P&P. Last year eBay took action against this by introducing mandatory free shipping for some items. But from 8 …

    Small Biz 2 Feb 2010, 12:09

  • Anti-Internet Explorer 6 protests grow with online petition

    Appeals for UK.gov to ditch aged browser

    Opposition to the UK government’s continued endorsement of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 continues to mount, after a petition was submitted to Number 10 yesterday. "We the undersigned petition the prime minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6," reads the online appeal that was …

    Applications 2 Feb 2010, 12:22

  • Virgin Media battles privacy campaigners on P2P monitoring

    No one's looking at you, alright?

    Regulators are mulling assurances from Virgin Media that its planned trial system to monitor the level of illegal filesharing on its network will not harm customers' privacy. "We've been engaging with all the relevant bodies, including Ofcom, the ICO and the EC, to ensure they have the information they need to make an informed …

    Broadband 2 Feb 2010, 12:38

  • Nokia: go straight to Symbian 3, skip Symbian 2

    Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.

    Nokia will ignore Symbian 2 in favour of Symbian 3, a Nokia executive has said, before rolling out Symbian 4 less than six months later. Why not simply skip straight to Symbian 4 and have done with it, we wonder? Because Symbian 3 and Symbian 2, for all their integer version numbers, essentially add features to the …

    Phones 2 Feb 2010, 12:41

  • Movea waves in free-space mouse

    Control games with the flick of a wrist

    Consoles look set to shift to motion-based controllers - witness the Xbox 360’s Project Natal — so PC peripherals manufacturer Movea has launched a mouse that responds to “natural hand movements”. The Gyration Air Mouse Elite contains Movea’s proprietary motion-sensing technology that it promised enables users to control …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 12:46

  • Manchester cops clobbered by Conficker

    PCs' PCs still unplugged from PNC

    Greater Manchester Police's computer network has been infected by the infamous Conficker worm, leaving beat cops unable to run computer checks on suspected criminals and vehicles for the last three days. The malware was likely introduced into the GMP network after an already infected memory stick was plugged into a Windows PC …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 12:54

  • Firm grows multi-touch see-through 'skin' for gadgets

    Make anything flat or curved touch-sensitive

    Are you ready for an iPad that's curved to fit around your forearm? Or an LCD TV that's as interactive as an iPhone? Displax, an off-shoot of Portuguese internet services company Edigma, reckons it can make these devices possible. It has developed what it claimed is the first multi-touch tech that can be applied to any …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 13:17

  • Sony and Arsenal to stream match highlights to PSPs

    Footie on your handheld

    Sony has released an application that will to stream live football footage to PSP-clad Arsenal fans. As we reported in January 2009, the PSP app – officially called Arsenal TV Matchday+ - can be used by fans at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium to watch goal replays during a match. The app also provides slow-motion footage, Arsenal …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 13:33

  • Oz banker caught porn-surfing on live TV

    In-depth analysis of Miranda Kerr

    An employee of Sydney's Macquarie Bank probably isn't in line for a fat payrise after he was caught on live TV closely analysing something a bit more scintillating than the Lucky Country's interest rates: According to net experts, at least one of the photos in question is Orlando Bloom's squeeze Miranda Kerr. The Victoria' …

    Bootnotes 2 Feb 2010, 13:33

  • Nokia slashes prices to up market share ante

    Rolls up sleeves for imminent manufacturer slugfest

    After a year almost in the shadows, Nokia is back in the cellphone limelight and is showing its aggressive face to those seeking its crown. It has already thrown down the gauntlet to Google with its free mapping and navigation promise, a move that is already shaking up the personal navigation space. In the first weeks of this …

    Phones 2 Feb 2010, 13:38

  • Mobile networks: It's a risky business, says 3

    You'll get an iPhone if you're good

    Three confirmed the risky nature of its infrastructure JV operation today, and dropped some hints about how 3 customers could get their hands on an iPhone later this year. 3 has spent big on expanding its network, partnering with T-Mobile to create a joint infrastructure venture called MVNL, the operation of which is wholly …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2010, 13:46

  • US plans crewless automated ghost-frigates

    Mary Celeste class robot X-ships to prowl seas

    Those splendid brainboxes at DARPA - the Pentagon's in-house bazaar of the bizarre - have outdone themselves this time. They now plan an entirely uncrewed, automated ghost frigate able to cruise the oceans of the world for months or years on end without human input. The new project is called Anti-submarine warfare Continuous …

    Science 2 Feb 2010, 14:15

  • Save DAB! Send FM radios to Africa

    Or bury them in a hole in the ground. We don't care

    Dumping tech is in the news again. Last week MIT's Nicholas Negroponte appealed for broken OLPC laptops to be sent to Haiti, but this will be dwarfed if the UK radio industry gets its way. Trade body Digital Radio UK wants Britons to send perfectly good working FM radios to Africa, in the hope it will accelerate our migration to …

    Media 2 Feb 2010, 14:40

  • PGP buys tech to offer trusted ID from the cloud

    Close friends get to call it TC

    PGP Corporation has acquired privately-held TC TrustCenter and its US parent company, ChosenSecurity, as part of plans to offer trusted identity management services from the cloud. Terms of the transaction, announced Tuesday, were not disclosed. TC TrustCenter provides managed trust services for customers in the financial, car …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 15:10

  • Avatar attracts nine Oscar nods

    Big night in prospect for 3D epic

    James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar has been nominated for nine Oscars, and will battle for the best film title with nine other titles, including the The Hurt Locker, directed by the Titanic helmsman's former wife Kathryn Bigelow, and itself up for nine statuettes. The list of potential best movie laureates has been expanded …

    Bootnotes 2 Feb 2010, 15:23

  • Google mulls biz software store to punt Apps

    Report suggests stretching of online shop tentacles

    Mountain View is reportedly building an online store to punt business software from its partners in a move to grab more Google Apps customers. It’s understood that Google plans to get closer to its partners by slotting more of its technology into their software, to make it easier for customers to buy add-ons and services via …

    Developer 2 Feb 2010, 15:26

  • The Virtensys triple whammy

    Comment Delivering a kicking to server, switch and network interface vendors

    Virtensys has the capability of being profoundly disruptive three times over; to network interface vendors, to switch vendors and even to server vendors. Who would have thought extending the internal PCIe bus outside servers could be like opening holes in three dikes simultaneously? The technology is an I/O-aggregating box, …

    Storage 2 Feb 2010, 15:29

  • Eco Vaio netbook en route to Blighty

    Recycled plastic machine heading this way

    The UK will take delivery of an “environmentally friendly” Vaio netbook later this month, Sony has said. Sony's Vaio W: made of recycled plastics The Vaio W – unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month and already available Stateside – is an “eco edition” netbook, Sony said, because the electronics giant has …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 15:36

  • First Vaio laptop with numberpad hits UK

    Es are good... for typists

    Sony has crafted yet another good-looking, high-spec Vaio. But this one’s different from the others: it’s the first Vaio laptop to feature a full-size numerical keypad. Sony's Vaio E: dedicated keys for letters and numbers To complement the Vaio E’s keyboard, Sony has given the laptop an “extra-narrow bezel” designed to …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 15:43

  • Council saves quarter mil' from mobile bill

    Derby puts contract up for auction, thinks more should follow

    Derby City Council reckons it saved £250,000 by putting its mobile phone bill up for auction, and now everyone else can get financial help to do the same thing. Derby's saving came at the end of a 52-minute auction, conducted electronically, with the eventual winner offering a price around 60 per cent of what the council had …

    Government 2 Feb 2010, 15:47

  • Super Micro grows like crazy in fiscal Q2

    Previews future servers

    If motherboard and server maker Super Micro is some kind of leading indicator - and a good argument could be made that it is - then the server and PC rackets may indeed be on the mend. In the company's second quarter of fiscal 2010 ended December 31, Super Micro reported sales of $182m, up a stunning 41.5 per cent from the …

    Servers 2 Feb 2010, 17:01

  • Designer pitches iPad gaming wheel

    Plastic circle to improve tablet's cornering?

    Wacky iPad accessories are slowly starting to surface, with one designer convinced that a steering wheel is what’s required if you hope to play games on the Apple tablet. The iDrift, designed by Michael Greenberg, is essentially two thin, circular plastic halves that fix onto either side on the iPad, turning Apple’s tablet …

    Games 2 Feb 2010, 17:39

  • Cisco 120Gbps router rumored

    Slow to outpace Juniper T1600

    Cisco is rumored to be cooking up a new carrier core router to outpace Juniper's speedy T1600. But it seems that issues with the supporting application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design may delay the Cisco's telco router rollout by up to a year. The new MSC120 Cisco router will become heir to network giant's Carrier …

    Data Networking 2 Feb 2010, 19:21

  • Intel set for server chip blitz

    From Tukwila to Nehalem-EX

    High-end server chip rivals Intel and IBM have picked the same day - next Monday, February 8 - to launch their respective quad-core "Tukwila" Itanium and eight-core Power7 processors. As El Reg previously reported, IBM is getting ready to launch the initial Power7-based servers in New York next Monday. The Power7 chips will …

    Servers 2 Feb 2010, 19:32

  • Google reveals nonexistent Chrome tablet

    The GPad

    Google has unveiled a series of image and video mock-ups of a tablet PC based on its Chrome OS, the still-gestating operating system centered around its Chrome web browser. Mountain View uncloaked its tablet "concept UI" early last week - two days before Steve Jobs announced Apple's long-awaited tablet, the unfortunately named …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 19:35

  • Microsoft security dev tools go 'Agile'

    Not just for Windows anymore

    Microsoft has expanded a key security tool to work with developers of web applications and other software that's developed over rapid and repeated stretches. The Microsoft Solutions Framework for so-called Agile development is designed to tailor its SDL, or secure development lifecycle, offerings to coders who write …

    Security 2 Feb 2010, 20:46

  • Facebook re-write takes PHP to an enterprise past

    Remember C++? They do

    Facebook's re-written PHP to transform the dynamic language for fast performance on web-scale server farms without adding additional hardware. The site's engineers have announced HipHop, which turns the popular and dynamic PHP code into highly optimized but static C++ and then compiles it using the GNU C++ compiler, g++. The …

    Developer 2 Feb 2010, 20:53

  • JooJoo men strike back at CrunchPad suit

    TechCruncher 'fatally imprecise'

    With Apple's latest cultware setting the world aflame over tablet PCs, it's easy to overlook another $500 couch potato media pad that made a rather spottier debut months earlier. Fusion Garage is supposedly getting set to release its JooJoo internet pad soon. But first, it's aiming to quash a lawsuit filed by the device's …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2010, 22:49

  • Google behavioral ad targeter is a Smart Ass

    Distributed ad crunching

    Google is handling its interest-based advertising behavioral ad targeting from a custom-built ad server known internally as Smart Ass, or smart ad serving system. According to a former Google employee, the system was under development as far back as 2006, and a second person with knowledge of the server says it was deployed …

    Media 2 Feb 2010, 23:25

  • iPhone vulnerable to remote attack on SSL

    Beware of rogue config files

    Apple's iPhone is vulnerable to exploits that allow an attacker to spoof web pages even when they're protected by the SSL, or secure sockets layer, protocol, a security researcher said. The fault lies in a feature that makes it easy to configure large numbers of iPhones so they meet an organization's IT policies, said Charlie …

    Phones 2 Feb 2010, 23:31