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4th February 2010 Archive

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  • Oracle: destroyer of virtual worlds

    Lights out for Sun's Project Darkstar

    Another of Sun Microsystem's almost-practical projects for Java has been shuttered now that Oracle holds the purse strings. Project Darkstar, an open-source application server catered specifically for massively multiplayer online games, will no longer receive Snoracle funding. The news was announced yesterday with a post to …

    Developer 4 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • TPC adds power suckage to benchmarks

    Performance (per watt) anxiety

    If server makers are already anxious about how big their iron is, they'll now also need to start worrying about how cool they are. The Transaction Processing Council is a consortium of server, operating system, and database software makers that steers the development, running, auditing, and reporting of a suite of online …

    Servers 4 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Open-source Silverlight project drops early third code

    Microsoft mirror

    The open-source project shadowing Silverlight has come a step closer to mirroring the latest edition of Microsoft's challenger to Flash. Moonlight leader Miguel de Icaza said a preview of Moonlight 3.0 has been delivered for early testing. Features include early work on UI virtualization to handle large sets of data, and a …

    Developer 4 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Huawei E5 Wi-Fi/3G modem

    Review Better known as the 3 MiFi

    Huawei's E5 is one of a growing line of compact, standalone HSDPA 3G modems that double-up as impromptu Wi-Fi hotspots. You may have heard of it as 3's MiFi. Rather than hook the E5 up to a single device - your laptop, typically - the built-in access point means you can share its 3G link among all your gadgets: phones, tablets …

    Broadband 4 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Appeal Court: TV menu decision was irrational, but not unfair

    Since when have shopping channels been rational, anyway?

    A broadcasting platform did not break the rules on the placing of stations in its electronic programme guide (EPG) even though its decision was partly irrationally based and it used criteria not specifically listed in its policy. The Freesat platform is a satellite service broadcasting free to air stations. Television shopping …

    Media 4 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Wikileaks finds cash to continue

    Don't (whistle)blow it all at once

    Whistle-blowing site Wikileaks has secured enough money in donations to resume operations. The site stopped publishing leaked documents in December in order to concentrate on a pledge drive, aimed at raising a minimum of $200,000 to keep the lights on, and $600,000 if staff were to be paid. Wikileaks also canvassed for …

    Financial News 4 Feb 2010, 08:52

  • Monster grabs Yahoo! jobs

    Carol Bartz cuts continue

    Giant jobs site Monster.com is about to get bigger - it has bought Yahoo!'s HotJobs. In return, Yahoo! gets $225m and a three year traffic deal which will see Monster supply it with job adverts for its US and Canadian sites. The deal also gives Monster an exclusive right to negotiate with Yahoo! for similar deals in Europe and …

    Financial News 4 Feb 2010, 08:58

  • IBM preps biz info flow sniffer

    Plus auto-redaction software

    Next month, IBM will demonstrate new business software designed to track how information flows across different systems and squeal when it spots potential flaws or alterations. Based on its own research along with technology from the $225m acquisition of Guardium in 2009, IBM's InfoSphere Business Information Monitor will be …

    Applications 4 Feb 2010, 09:02

  • MoD turns to bloggers for advice on UK defence policy

    Labour, Tories: We won't reveal plans until we're in charge

    With the major parties agreed that a full defence review is to be carried out after the election - thus avoiding any need to let the public vote for what it wants - one wouldn't expect yesterday's MoD green paper to say much, and indeed it mostly doesn't. However there are a few snippets of mild interest: an admission that the …

    Government 4 Feb 2010, 09:56

  • Singer wears ‘Twitter dress’ to Grammys

    Imogen Heap models hi-tech glad rags

    A British singer-songwriter was spotted at the US Grammy Awards this week wearing a hi-tech dress that displays Twitter posts. Solo electro-pop artist and erstwhile Frou Frou vocalist Imogen Heap – her 1998 debut album was called iMegaphone – wore a customised dress to the music industry awards night in Los Angeles that …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 10:10

  • Schwartz goes all of a Twitter

    He goes in style - oddly

    Jonathan Schwartz, now the ex-CEO of Oracle-owned Sun, went in the same way as he ran the company, oddly: he tweeted a haiku to his followers. With an impish sense of humour he wrote: Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/ Stalled too many customers/ CEO no more He' …

    Servers 4 Feb 2010, 10:20

  • Aussie ISP beats Hollywood on 'copyright' rap

    Providing net access not same as OK-ing copyright theft

    The Australian Federal Court has found an Aussie ISP not responsible for copyright offences committed by its customers. The Australian Federation against Copyright Theft claimed that iiNet authorised copyright theft by its customers. Judge J Cowdroy accepted that iiNet users had used BitTorrent to infringe copyright, but that …

    Broadband 4 Feb 2010, 10:25

  • BBC 'to chop DAB radio flops'

    Sent to bubbling mudbath

    The BBC may axe some of its digital-only radio stations, including 6Music and the Asian Network, according to a report. The Asian Network costs £25m but attracts only 360,000 listeners. It's reckoned to be as expensive per-minute as prime-time TV costume drama. Radio6Music is also under threat as part of a separate review, and …

    Media 4 Feb 2010, 10:37

  • DNA pioneer lambasts government database policy

    Declares himself 'astonished, perplexed and deeply worried'

    The developer of DNA fingerprinting and profiling has said the government is wrong in retaining profiles of innocent people. Geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys told MPs that he was "astonished, perplexed and deeply worried" about the existing management policy of the National DNA Database. He was providing evidence to the House of …

    Law 4 Feb 2010, 10:43

  • HP ordered to pay £200m in interim damages ruling

    Sky is the limit for total figure

    The High Court has ordered Hewlett-Packard to pay BSkyB £200 million in interim damages, according to press reports. The interim award follows a ruling last week over a contract tendering process. Computer Weekly reports that the damages must be paid within 14 days, by 17th February. "[HP] shall make an interim payment on …

    The Channel 4 Feb 2010, 10:51

  • ARM boss forecasts mass migration to netbooks

    Desktops, laptops out - small, cheap computers in

    ARM CEO Warren East believes that netbooks will come to dominate the PC market - and it won't be that long before it happens. "Although netbooks are small today – maybe ten per cent of the PC market at most – we believe over the next several years that could completely change around and that could be 90 per cent of the PC …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 10:57

  • Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges

    Complex fraud lies behind emissions permissions attack

    Phishing fraudsters have extended their net beyond harvesting e-banking credentials via a scam that resulted in the theft of 250,000 carbon permits worth over €3m. The outbreak of fraud resulted in the suspension of trading in several EU registries on 2 February. The crooks are thought to have created fake emission registries …

    Security 4 Feb 2010, 10:59

  • PS3 sales up, says Sony

    Console boosts Q3 results

    Sony recorded a strong rise in PlayStation 3 hardware and software sales during its third 2009 fiscal quarter. During the three-month period ended 31 December 2009, Sony shifted 6.5m PS3s – up from 4.5m units of the console during the same period in 2008. Sony also saw a rise in PS3 software sales, from 40.8m units in Q3 2008 …

    Games 4 Feb 2010, 11:12

  • Vodafone signs up 410k UK customers for Christmas

    It's the thought that counts

    Vodafone's trading statement for the last three months of 2009 shows a steady shift from voice to data, though data still isn't bringing in enough money. Overall, Vodafone had a good quarter - these aren't full accounts but we can see that Vodafone now has 333 million customers, adding just over 10 million during the period, …

    Mobile 4 Feb 2010, 11:25

  • Webcam saves stranded man

    Cameras! Lights! Reaction!

    This is nice. A German man stranded on sea ice was saved by a woman sitting at her PC 500km away. The man had gone for a stroll on the beach at St. Peter-Ording, on the North Sea, near Denmark, to watch the sunset, when he got disorientated, walked onto the ice, and could not find his way back. Facing almost certain death, he …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 11:34

  • The long and winding road to server virtualisation

    Reader feedback It’s all about Tetris and the price of fish

    "Move along, nothing to see here," said Reg reader Joshua 1, a self-confessed "old timer on the virtualisation front," in response to the question of whether server virtualisation was ready for prime time. Indeed it is difficult to read anything about virtualisation without getting the impression that it is inevitable. But …

    Virtualisation Lab 4 Feb 2010, 11:49

  • Symbian shares the source

    Go open source early

    The Symbian Foundation has announced it will be sharing the last of its source code today, putting the most widespread mobile OS under the Eclipse licence. The Foundation reckons there are 330 million handsets out there running Symbian, and it's been working for the last couple of years to get ^3 (as version 3 is termed) …

    Mobile 4 Feb 2010, 11:59

  • Acer punts Windows server for your stuff

    Atom-powered Nas

    Acer has introduced a Nas box based on Intel's old desktop Atom processor. The Aspire EasyStore H340 has room for four 3.5in Sata hard drives - hot-swappable, too; well all the but the drive with the OS on it - on which to keep your content. Acer's Aspire EasyStore H340: runs Windows Home Server The box uses Windows Home …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 12:00

  • Men at Work swiped Down Under riff

    Oz classic plagiarised Girl Guides' ditty, court rules

    Australian band Men at Work could be substantially out of pocket after Sydney federal court ruled that the flute riff from Down Under was ripped off from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. The latter was penned in 1934 by Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides Jamboree, and "has since been sung by generations of Australian …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2010, 12:01

  • Sony, Vodafone vie for X10 UK launch first

    Manufacturer to sell online ahead of operator

    Sony Ericsson intends to beat Vodafone to the launch of its first Android-based smartphone, the Xperia X10. Vodafone has updated its X10 webpage to say that the smartphone is “coming soon”, with April named as the specific month. Vodafone will launch the X10 in April However, staff from Sony Ericsson’s online store …

    Phones 4 Feb 2010, 12:04

  • Iran launches rat, two turtles, some worms into space

    Tiny space ark 'entirely peaceful', says general

    The Iranian government says it has launched its third spacecraft, this time carrying "a rat, two turtles," and an unspecified number of "worms" on a one-way trip into space. The rat, according to reports, is named "Helmz 1". Press TV, the state-controlled Iranian English-language channel, reports that the "Kavoshgar 3" ( …

    Science 4 Feb 2010, 12:08

  • Politico sues politico

    Cease and desist nonsense du jour

    UK right-wing blog Tory-Politico.com has been hit with a cease and desist order from US site politico.com. The lawyer's letter claims the domain name is "confusingly similar to the POLITICO mark in that it wholly incorporates the "Politico" mark and merely adds the descriptive word 'tory' to the Domain Name." Even stranger, …

    Law 4 Feb 2010, 12:36

  • Sony 'actively thinking' about PSN access fee

    Time to cough up?

    The possibility that PlayStation owners could be forced to pay for access the console’s online network has reared its ugly head again, following comments by a Sony executive. In a recent interview, Peter Dille, Senior VP of marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony Computer Entertainment America, admitted that the company is …

    Games 4 Feb 2010, 12:38

  • MS probes bug that turns PCs into 'public file servers'

    Unwanted promotion for older Windows boxes

    Microsoft has begun investigating a flaw in IE that most affects older versions of Windows, and turns vulnerable systems into a "public file server". The vulnerability means that hackers might be able to access files with an already known filename and location, providing they can trick users into visiting a maliciously …

    Security 4 Feb 2010, 12:44

  • Sonos ZonePlayer S5

    Review Sonic boon?

    US firm Sonos first debuted its first products back in 2006, and it offered just about the best example of a self-contained, multi-zone wireless music system that had yet been seen. It featured an iPod-like hand-held controller and used the company's proprietary wireless technology – rather than Wi-Fi – to connect your PC to a …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 13:02

  • Blacklisted UK colleges take Border Agency to court

    Exclusive Student visa systems overhaul gets legal

    Several UK colleges are taking the UK Border Agency to court after they were suspended from approving student visa applications. Since that action, which hit 142 institutions, the Border Agency has gone further - it has suspended all applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Colleges include both private and …

    Government 4 Feb 2010, 13:03

  • Blighty gets DARPA cash to put sat-phones in satellites

    Inmarsat space BGAN mobe for 'fractionated' cluster-swarm

    Pentagon crazytech chiefs have hit upon a new plan: they will equip future US military satellites with satellite phones. British firm Inmarsat has got the job. It's not as barmy a scheme as it sounds right off. The idea is to make it much easier to communicate with a satellite, even when it's on the wrong side of the world …

    Broadband 4 Feb 2010, 13:27

  • H.264 video codec stays royalty-free for HTML5 testers

    Patent granted 5-year amnesty, Mozilla still no-likey

    Freetards stand down - MPEG LA has decided to slash royalties to zero for anyone wishing to use the H.264 codec for free streaming of internet video until the end of 2016. The MPEG licensing outfit confirmed earlier this week that its AVC patent portfolio licence won’t charge royalties for internet video that is free to end …

    Developer 4 Feb 2010, 13:39

  • Teen blogging is sick! (and not in a good way)

    The unbearable pointlessness of blogging

    Teenagers are bored with blogging and are moving onto other public confessionals forms. In 2006 28 per cent of US teen internet users were bloggers. Now only 14 per cent blog today, with 52 per cent commenting on friends' blogs, down from 76 per cent in 2006 (source: Pew Research Center, Feb'10). Is this such a surprise? …

    Broadband 4 Feb 2010, 13:41

  • Wales Audit Office boss sacked amidst laptop smut claims

    Bowtied beancounter's bawdy bookmarks...

    Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales has resigned from his £170,000 a year post after porn material was allegedly found on his laptop. In fact, the post is in the gift of the Queen, so his resignation has been forwarded on to her. The National Assembly is now looking for an interim successor. His laptop was seized, The …

    Government 4 Feb 2010, 13:50

  • Motorola Devours el cheapo Androidphone market

    Calling all Web2.0rheics

    Verizon Wireless will bring another Android-based Motorola smartphone to the US market next month. A glance at its specs indicates that it should be less expensive than Moto's flagship Droid. That's the good news. The bad news is two-pronged. First, the new phone will run Android 1.6, and not the more-capable Android 2.0 that …

    Phones 4 Feb 2010, 14:02

  • Amazon fingers touch tech firm

    Kindle goes to the feelies?

    Amazon is reportedly buying a company specialising in touch technologies, and recruiting hard to keep the Kindle at the front of the shelf. Touchco is a New York startup spun out of New York University to exploit "interpolating force-sensitive resistance" to create cheap multi-touch surfaces, which, according to the New York …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 14:32

  • Does Apple patent claim show iPad with built-in camera?

    Cupertino drops heavy clues

    A strong hint that Apple will indeed include a camera in subsequent versions of the super-hyped iPad was revealed in an “image capturing device” patent application submitted by the company late last month, The Register has learned. USPTO patent application 20100020222 strongly alludes to the inclusion of a camera - not just in …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 14:37

  • NASA develops spaceship work robot called 'R2'

    Definitely the droid we're looking for, say space chiefs

    NASA, in partnership with motor globo-mammoth GM, says it has taken a "giant leap in robotic technology", having developed a robot intended to operate alongside humans in space and called - really - R2. Ha - your obscure widget is no match for my krenon-ray pistol. As you can see, though, the machine - full name Robonaut 2 …

    Science 4 Feb 2010, 15:18

  • Google turns to NSA for help in cyberattack defences

    Worm belatedly turns

    Google is detailing a new data-sharing agreement with the US National Security Agency in order to better protect itself against apparent attacks from China. Back in 2006, Google claimed lots of positive press coverage for briefly resisting requests for its search data from the Department of Justice. The firm has generally …

    Government 4 Feb 2010, 15:24

  • Extreme pr0n suspect has his internet access suspended

    Heard not seen, at least not online

    A new threat for those suspected of ogling extreme porn arrives today in the shape of an internet ban pending trial. This is what lawyers might term "an interesting idea", and one that could come to cause grief far more widely if it catches on. Phillip Heard, aged 57, of Coed Fedwen, Birchgrove, in Swansea, faces 19 charges of …

    Law 4 Feb 2010, 15:57

  • Chinese e-tailer lights up ciggie-lighter phone for smokers

    Puff piece

    Online gadget retailer Chinavasion has launched a mobile phone with integrated... cigarette lighter. Chinavasion's Machismo: puff while you chat The Machismo is supposedly “the world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone”. Actually, it's probably the world's only cigarette lighter mobile phone. A “safety latch” on the …

    Phones 4 Feb 2010, 15:58

  • E-book readers are a satisfied lot

    Or were before the iPad was announced

    Owners of e-book readers - well, US-based ones at least - are very happy with their purchases, local market watcher NPD has revealed. We say 'are' because NPD made its announcement this week. But 'were' might be a more 'accurate' term since the research that led to this conclusion was carried out more than two months ago, in …

    Hardware 4 Feb 2010, 16:21

  • Big iron bolsters Q4 at Unisys

    Mainframes make money

    The rebound in spending on two upgraded mainframe lines and aggressive costcutting helped swing Unisys to a profit in the final quarter of 2009, despite ongoing revenue declines. Overall sales for Unisys in Q4 were down 5.5 per cent to $1.21bn, and services revenues fell by 9 per cent to just over $1bn. But thanks to a big …

    Servers 4 Feb 2010, 17:11

  • Kit cracks iPhone backup passwords

    Download, point, click

    Password cracking of iPhone backups has become a point-and-click exercise thanks to software unveiled Thursday by a computer forensics tools provider. The Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker, which was released for free into beta, recovers passwords for iPhones and iPod Touches by trying thousands of phrases per second. It …

    Phones 4 Feb 2010, 18:09

  • Cisco's California sales on the double

    400 sees gold in them thar servers

    With business brewing again over at networking giant Cisco Systems and poised for a recovery in spending on networking, the company's competitors in the server racket - mainly Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Oracle - were perhaps annoyed to see that Cisco's "California" Unified Computing System blade and rack servers are continuing to …

    Servers 4 Feb 2010, 19:11

  • Juniper bakes 250Gbps core router chip

    Preemptive Cisco strike

    Juniper Networks has said it has new silicon in the oven that will soon let its T Series core routers reach a full duplex per-slot capacity of 250 gigabits per second. On Thursday, the company said trials with products using the chipset, an in-house affair fabbed at 45nm, are penned for the second half of 2010 and will be …

    The Channel 4 Feb 2010, 19:35

  • Apache terminates 'outdated' web server

    We, and the world, move on

    An increasingly creaky version of the web's most popular web server has finally been retired after twelve years serving billions of pages. The Apache Software Foundation has released HTTP Sever 1.3.42, saying this is the final release of the 1.3 branch, and there will be no more updates except for critical security fixes. …

    Applications 4 Feb 2010, 19:41

  • Do Google's search warrant police run IE6?

    The Not Quite Anti-Microsoft

    According to popular perception, Google is the anti-Microsoft: a new-age outfit bent on re-architecting a flawed interwebs using nothing but open source software. The company runs its own flavor of Linux. It funded the rise of Firefox. And it eventually fashioned its own open source browser, Google Chrome. But the reality is …

    Applications 4 Feb 2010, 19:55

  • Adobe to Jobs: 'What the Flash do you know?'

    Flash never ships with bugs we're aware of

    Adobe has fired back at Steve Jobs after the Apple boss allegedly attacked Adobe Flash for being "buggy" and referred to the Flashmakers as "lazy." "I can tell you that we don't ship Flash with any known crash bugs," Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch wrote today in a back-and-forth with commenters on an Adobe corporate blog, "and if there …

    Applications 4 Feb 2010, 21:12

  • US bill seeks cybersecurity scholarships

    Send your kid to hacker school

    The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would direct almost $400m toward research designed to shore up the nation's cybersecurity defenses. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act would approve $108.7m over five years to establish continue a cybersecurity scholarship program. In return, students would …

    Security 4 Feb 2010, 21:13

  • Domain auction house wrestles with alleged shill

    SnapNames in legal action against ex-exec

    Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky has revealed that the company is in active but pending legal action against the former executive who allegedly fixed tens of thousands of its domain-name auctions under the pseudonym “halvarez." Last week, at the company's Domainfest conference, Kupietzky refused to be drawn on the company’s …

    Networks 4 Feb 2010, 22:37

  • AT&T lets 3G Sling TV onto iPhone

    Updated Timing is everything

    AT&T has reversed an earlier stand, allowing Sling Media's player for the iPhone touch to stream live or recorded television over 3G. As we reported last spring, AT&T originally restricted SlingPlayer Mobile to Wi-Fi connections - even though it allowed 3G streaming rights for Major League Baseball's MLB.com At Bat app. At …

    Phones 4 Feb 2010, 23:22