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5th February 2010 Archive

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  • DoJ objects to (revised) Googlebooks pact

    Um, you didn't fix our problems

    The US Department of Justice is still concerned that Google's $125m book-scanning settlement conflicts with class-action, copyright, and antitrust law, even after Google and American authors and publishers negotiated changes to the pact meant to appease its critics. "Despite the commendable efforts of the parties to improve …

    Media 5 Feb 2010, 01:59

  • iPhone App Store bars mention of Google Android

    You are not rejected. But you can't come in

    Apple has told a tiny mobile software developer that its application cannot be included in the iPhone App Store if it mentions Google Android. Flash of Genius offers a mobile app aimed at students preparing for their college entrance exams. "Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab" debuted on the iPhone, and at the end of last year, a …

    Mobile 5 Feb 2010, 02:03

  • Dear Adobe: It's time for security rehab

    Comment This is an intervention

    The stories about Adobe software keep coming, and the news hasn't been good. Critical bugs in Reader and Flash have come under real-world, zero-day attacks so many times in the past year that the exploits almost seem routine. Security researchers such as Mike Bailey, Dan Kaminsky and Jeremiah Grossman and Robert "RSnake" Hansen …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 05:48

  • CloudLinux promises virtual benefits for high rollers

    Red Hat and Ubuntu de-fluffed

    When it comes to the cloud, there's Linux and then there's Linux, and Igor Seletskiy believes he's built a Linux better than the current generation of distros for service providers serving up tens of thousands of sites. Seletskiy's CloudLinux is a Red-Hat based distribution that builds in Linux virtualization technology and …

    Virtualization 5 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • NetApp deduping virtual tape in limbo

    Updated with NetApp response Walks away from development

    NetApp is halting further development of its deduplicating NearStore product following its failed attempt to buy Data Domain. It is walking away from any development of deduplicating nearline storage products. At a top level, NetApp divides data into hot to not-so-hot primary data, secondary storage, and then virtual tape …

    Storage 5 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • InPhase succumbs to the darkness

    Holographic light at end of tunnel was an oncoming train

    Holographic storage company InPhase Technologies has paid off all its employees but is still looking for a venture capital white knight. The dream still flickers, it's just temporarily out of phase. According to a report in the Longmont Times-Call, the last 60 employees have been paid off after working for a year on minimum …

    Storage 5 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Defra tenders for sheep tracking database

    We know where ewes live

    The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will pay £6m over five years for an animal movements reporting service. The electronic identification (EID) database will be used to track sheep and will link to an animal movement licensing system. According to the notice published in the Official Journal of the European …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Cambridge Uni to probe games' impact on kids

    Reading or gaming - which is better for junior?

    Some people believe videogames affect a child’s physical and mental behaviour, while others will swear blind that they don’t. Now Cambridge University hopes to discover the truth and has created a department dedicated to studying the messages kids absorb from “cultural sources”. The university’s Centre for Children's …

    Games 5 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Apple bans geo loco ads on iPhone, iPad*

    * - may exclude Apple ads

    Apple has warned developers that they can't use location-based services such as the Core Location framework to deliver ads to iPhone, iPod touch, and - come March - iPad owners based on where they are. Interestingly, this ban appears to run counter to Apple's own intents as hinted at in recent patent filings. Thanks to Macnn …

    Phones 5 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Inside Microsoft's innovation crisis

    Ideas not a problem

    The debate on how Microsoft is losing its innovative edge is as perennial and comfortable as how the summers were warmer and drier when you were growing up. In recent years, that debate was set in the context of the rise of the Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Phyton (LAMP), JavaScript and the web - specifically Google - that …

    Software 5 Feb 2010, 09:02

  • Apple offers hush money for dodgy iMacs

    Happy now?

    Apple is offering cash payments to customers still having grief with their 27-inch iMacs, which have been plagued with various screen problems. In the UK there are no 27-inch LCDs screens available to fix the iMacs so instead Apple is offering full refunds plus 15 per cent, Gizmodo reports. Some of the machines have suffered …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 09:25

  • Bruce Almighty drives Coraid AoE plan after $10m investment

    Comment Ten-year startup gets VC funding jolt

    Meet Coraid. This ten year-old startup has got its first venture capital funding and a new CEO who wants us all to understand that its AoE storage protocol is just terrific. Its product stores data in Ethernet-connected arrays using AoE - ATA over Ethernet - a block storage protocol, which, unlike Fibre Channel over Ethernet ( …

    Data Networking 5 Feb 2010, 09:59

  • Air Marshal: RAF may not have to be disbanded

    It's 'plausible' that slug-balancers will be kept

    Yesterday, reporting on the Ministry of Defence green paper issued this week, we referenced a news item in which the UK's top serviceman, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, reportedly said it was "plausible" that Britain might in future have just two armed services rather than three. It has now emerged that this was in error …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 10:18

  • Miranda Kerr backs Oz porn-surf banker

    Macquarie shows mercy following net campaign

    Internet users have over the last few days mobilised in support of the Oz banker caught copping an eyeful of shapely local lass MIranda Kerr during a live TV broadcast, amid speculation that Sydney's Macquarie Bank was poised to give him his marching orders: Since the outrage spilled onto the interwebs earlier this week, …

    Bootnotes 5 Feb 2010, 10:46

  • Baker's dozen for bumper February MS Patch Tuesday

    Get them while they're hot

    Microsoft is planning a bumper patch Tuesday, with 13 bulletins that collectively fix 26 difference vulnerabilities. Five of the bulletins are rated critical, seven as important, and one as moderate risk. Eleven of the baker's dozen of notices affect Windows, while two involve Office. All versions of Windows will need …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 10:55

  • Nokia's free Ovi Maps scores a download every second

    Finnish firm continues 2010 mojo reclaimation

    Nokia is on a roll after its stagnant 2009, with strong quarterly results and rising smartphone share. Now it says its recent decision to make its Ovi Maps navigation service entirely free, in an aggressive shot at Google, has already been fully justified, with downloads hitting over 1.4m in just a couple of weeks. "We're …

    Mobile 5 Feb 2010, 11:18

  • London Sperm Bank whips out its wedding tackle

    NSFW LogoWatch Comedy cock-up

    It's Friday, so as we nip off to the nearest boozer for a few pre-weekend liveners, let's consider raising a hearty pint to the London Sperm Bank whose splendid logo was recently spotted by a Reg reader: The man oyster repository in question is apparently hosted by the London Women's Clinic, and its logo too deserves a toast …

    Bootnotes 5 Feb 2010, 11:19

  • Quantum superclock will be accurate past end of life on Earth

    Huge can of whup-ass opened on erratic caesium tech

    US government boffins say they have built a clock so precise that it will still be accurate to within one second when life on Earth has ceased. The "quantum logic clock" will neither gain nor lose a second over the next 3.7 billion years, according to its makers at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). …

    Science 5 Feb 2010, 11:33

  • MS hits Office 2010 upgrade program button prematurely

    Office 2007 purchasers to get free update from 5 March?

    Microsoft let slip details about its Office 2010 “technology guarantee” plan yesterday. The apparent PR gaffe revealed that the software vendor would kick off the program on 5 March. Office 2010 is expected to hit retail in June this year, but Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed an official date for its next big consumer product …

    Applications 5 Feb 2010, 11:34

  • Stats boss slams Tory use of crime figures

    There's lies, then there's what you said

    The head of the UK Statistics Authority has slammed shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling for misleading use of crime figures. Sir Michael Scholar pulls few punches in the letter to Grayling, which said his comments were likely to undermine public trust in official statistics. Grayling's comparison of numbers of violent …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 12:01

  • El Reg space bureau firms up PARIS kit list

    Paper plane project acquires gadgetry

    Our Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme is moving briskly along, and we've now put together an initial kit list for both the main payloads and Vulture 1 vehicle. First up, after mulling the main payload, and just what we need it to do, we decided that we didn't really want to get bogged down in complex …

    SPB 5 Feb 2010, 12:02

  • Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W1

    Review First 3D compact digital camera

    The world seems to have gone 3D crazy. Crowds are flocking to see the 3D movie Avatar; consumer electronics companies are promising 3DTVs and Blu-ray Disc players, and broadcasters, such as Sky, are set to launch 3DTV services. Fujifilm has also got in on the act with the Finepix Real 3D W1, a camera for the masses that captures …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 12:02

  • Oracle puts the squeeze on Sun channel

    Comment 'The right call'

    Oracle has come out with a firm message regarding Sun’s sales strategy: it will change. In 2008, a flailing Sun announced it would service its top 300 accounts directly and push the rest to the channel. We thought it was a terrible idea at the time, and at analyst conferences, we questioned company management about it. The …

    Servers 5 Feb 2010, 12:06

  • Hubble peers closely at Pluto

    Pics reveal ice and molasses

    NASA has released "the most detailed and dramatic images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto", captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, which reveal an "icy, mottled, dark molasses-colored world": NASA explains that Pluto's overall hue is "believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant sun breaking …

    Science 5 Feb 2010, 12:13

  • Netbook shipments surge

    Industry-beating growth in 2009

    Last year was a good 12 months for netbook makers: together they shipped 30.2 million of the mini laptops. That, market watcher Strategy Analytics said this week, is 79 per cent more than they managed in 2008. To put that into context, fellow researcher IDC earlier this year put 2009's total PC shipments at 294.2m units. IDC …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 12:17

  • Intel pours vPro sauce on latest Core chips

    Promises sysadmins remote viewing power

    Intel yesterday unveiled a raft of vPro products based on the Core designs it debuted last month, showing the oft overlooked business desktop market a rare bit of love. The vendor unveiled its 2010 client chip lineup at CES last month, in the shape of the Core i5 and Core i7 parts. The parts are built on Nehalem and have been …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 12:28

  • Microsoft to end Live support for old-school Xbox

    Promises big things for Xbox 360 owners instead

    Microsoft has announced it will soon no longer support the original Xbox console on its Live online service. From 15 April, Microsoft will "discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games", according to the software giant’s Major Nelson blog. The decision will also impact Xbox 360 owners - specifically, …

    Games 5 Feb 2010, 12:29

  • Betting sites balance fraudster nab and customer loss

    Tricky job? You bet

    Online gambling sites are fighting ever-sharper fraudsters, forcing them to balance stricter anti-cheat measures against the risk of alienating some of their best customers. Last week's Betting and Gaming 2010 Conference ran just days after it was revealed bookmakers Ladbrokes was investigating the loss of thousands of …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 12:30

  • Steve Jobs in secret NYT meet

    Cat in hat flashed iPad under the table

    Apple boss Steve Jobs had a secret meeting with New York Times' publisher Arthur Sulzberger and other executives to show off the iPad and explain what he thinks it means for publishing. Jobs ordered a mango lassi and penne pasta, neither of which are on the Pranna restaurant menu, New York magazine reported. Jobs, apparently …

    Media 5 Feb 2010, 12:46

  • Four UK politicians charged for dodgy expenses

    Three MPs and a Lord

    The Crown Prosecution Service has informed the Metropolitan Police that it intends to charge four politicians with accounting offences after the investigation into the expenses scandal. The police passed files on six individuals to the CPS which chose four that it believed had sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 12:58

  • ZeuS tracker shrinks takedowns from days to minutes

    Search and destroy

    A site dedicated to tracking the infamous ZeuS botnet is celebrating its first birthday. In the twelve months since the ZeuS Tracker was born, on 2 February 2009, the site has tracked more then 2,800 malicious botnet command and control servers associated with ZeuS. The site has logged around 360MB ZeuS config files and 330MB …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 13:01

  • Directgov kids' site apes explosive gay porn brand

    Updated When Buster gonads Worlds collide

    The homepage of the children’s section of Directgov currently sports an unfortunate banner by the name of Buster’s World, which just so happens to be the name of a gay porn fetish site. The Register has contacted the Department for Children, Schools and Families to ask if it was aware that youngsters could innocently search …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 13:07

  • Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival

    Camera? Check. Multi-tasking? Check. Flash? Check

    Apple may have decided against the appellation 'iTablet' - one of the rumoured names for the product now known as the iPad - but that hasn't stopped UK computer supplier X2 claiming the name for its own. The iTablet range comprises at least two models: one with a 12in, 1024 x 768 display, the other with a 10.2in screen of the …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 13:14

  • Spooks scour gambling sites in terror finance probe

    Money laundering with a poker face

    The security services are running 23 ongoing investigations into the exploitation of gambling websites to finance terrorism. The revelation shows the online gaming industry is still vulnerable, and a prime target for criminals and terrorists, even after being at the centre of the conviction of the man described as the " …

    Law 5 Feb 2010, 13:23

  • US gov's emptying of vast Texan helium-tank dome 'wrong'

    Vital for LHC, rockets, airships - and the entire IT biz

    A hefty sci/tech body has said that the USA's current policy of selling off its enormous reserves of helium gas - which it keeps stored in a gigantic subterranean dome reservoir in Texas - is all wrong. This is partly because the plan is cocking up the global helium market, and partly because helium is vital for many activities …

    HPC 5 Feb 2010, 14:10

  • 3G networks appeal for power boost

    Turning it up to eleven

    Ofcom is considering allowing UK's mobile operators to quadruple the power of their 3G transmissions, to improve coverage and maybe roast a few more brain cells. The request came from Vodafone, but when Ofcom consulted the other operators they all wanted in, so now the regulator has published a consultation (pdf) with plans to …

    Broadband 5 Feb 2010, 14:43

  • Sony to revamp movie classics for 3D era

    Citizen Kane cubed?

    Sony is planning to take old movies, convert them into 3D and bung them out on Blu-ray Disc, all in a bid to boost consumer interest in 3D TV technology. The move - which to many film buffs will recall media companies' past efforts to colourise black-and-white classics - could kick off as early as April. "We'll probably be …

    Media 5 Feb 2010, 14:56

  • Carly Fiorina unleashes 'demon sheep'

    US Senate bid becoming 'increasingly bizarre'

    Former HP supremo Carly Fiorina is not sparing the horses in her bid to become Republican senator for California. Or rather, she's not sparing the sheep, as this subtle attack on rival Tom Campbell proves: Well, you really wouldn't want to watch that while under the influence of mind-expanding drugs. Campbell's camp …

    Bootnotes 5 Feb 2010, 15:02

  • Tweets are free on 3

    Gossip, gratis

    Mobile network 3 has said its customers can Tweet for free for the rest of the month and March too. Tell the world you're eating chips for dinner, and the message sent from your 3 phone to Twitter - whether you use the social network's website or a dedicated app - will not count toward your monthly data allowance, 3 said. …

    Broadband 5 Feb 2010, 15:10

  • US economy sheds 20,000 jobs in January

    IT-related companies cut staff

    Through the magic of a large number of Americans giving up on finding a job and removing themselves from the official calculations, the unemployment rate in the United States dropped by three-tenths of a per cent to 9.7 per cent, even as the economy shed 20,000 jobs in January. This employment level is what the US Department …

    Financial News 5 Feb 2010, 15:24

  • Boom foreseen for LED backlight backers

    Quote of the Week Chuck out your CCFLs

    “Without a doubt, LED backlights will be the dominant light source in all applications in 2011 — representing a significant business and technology evolution for the entire backlight and panel supply chain.” Kevin Kwak, DisplaySearch, Director of LED Backlight Unit Research

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 15:53

  • European Commission pays IDC to take a hard look at HPC

    Acorn RISC United

    The European Commission has commissioned IT market researchers and analysts at IDC to work with some of the top European supercomputing labs to rationalize and coordinate the efforts to push into petascale and exascale computing within Europe. HPC experts from Teratec, in France, Daresbury Laboratory, in the United Kingdom, …

    HPC 5 Feb 2010, 15:53

  • Europe moves to curtail US data snooping rights

    Free access to financial data may end

    The European Commission has opened a public consultation on whether the US government should continue to get free access to European bank and financial data under the SWIFT agreement. The US claims it needs access to our bank accounts in order to fight terrorism - it has had free access since shortly after 11 September 2001. …

    Government 5 Feb 2010, 15:56

  • Nokia C6: is the 'C' for Centro?

    New Nokia resembles old Palm

    The removal of the Palm Centro from the company's prime website can't have come too soon for Nokia. The following snap of what's said to be the Finnish phone giant's upcoming C6 mid-range Qwerty keyboard handset has been doing the rounds of the handset blogs: There's nothing particularly special about the spec: HSPDA 3G, S60 …

    Phones 5 Feb 2010, 16:19

  • Lotus Symphony 3 beta goes OOo

    IBM clambers onto Microsoft, Google coattails

    IBM flung out a second beta of Lotus Symphony 3 yesterday, that brings the free productivity suite closer to Microsoft Office. The software, which is based on current OpenOffice.org 3 code stream, comes loaded with support for Visual Basic macros, OLE Objects and embedded audio/video. The company has tweaked the user …

    Applications 5 Feb 2010, 16:20

  • Sci-fi and fantasy authors wade into Amazon spat

    Blasters and enchanted swords at the ready

    The writers' group Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America has cut links to Amazon after the retailer removed, and then reinstated, titles from Macmillan publishing. The spat is all about ebook pricing - Amazon claims that $9.99 is all punters will pay for the ethereal presence of an electronic book, but Macmillan reckons …

    Mobile 5 Feb 2010, 16:30

  • BAE cops to arms-deal violation, pays $400m US fine

    Also £30m in UK over shady Tanzanian radar deal

    UK-headquartered but nowadays US-centred arms globocorp BAE Systems has confessed to corporate wrongdoing and will pay hefty fines on both sides of the Atlantic. Most of today's revelations in the case are unsurprising - BAE has reportedly confessed to violations under US law with respect to aspects of the vast, highly …

    Financial News 5 Feb 2010, 17:14

  • Climategate witchhunt fingers scientist

    Police quiz tests the faith

    Police have questioned a scientist at the University of East Anglia in connection with the leak of emails from the University's Climatic Research Unit. Paul Dennis, Head of Stable Isotope and Noble Gas Geochemistry Laboratories at UEA, has produced studies in support of Global Warming, but this didn't stop him falling under …

    Science 5 Feb 2010, 17:23

  • Vodafone Twitterer takes aim at some beaver

    Tells world he needs something for the weekend

    Vodafone had a burst of Friday-afternoon fever with a tweet informing the world that its weekend plans involved purely heterosexual attractions. The tweet in question was sent just before four this afternoon, and was followed by a rush of apologies that are still swamping the VodafoneUK twitter channel. The offending tweet has …

    Bootnotes 5 Feb 2010, 17:29

  • Mozilla overlooked malware-laced Firefox add-ons

    Feels like the first time. But it's not

    Two Firefox add-ons available for months on Mozilla's website infected users with malware that stole passwords and opened a backdoor on Windows machines, the open-source browser maker has confirmed. The add-ons, available on an experimental section of Mozilla's official add-on download site carried trojans that have been …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 18:09

  • Big Blue demos 100GHz chip

    Updated One atom thin

    IBM reseachers have made a breakthrough in the development of ultra-high-speed transistor design, creating a 100GHz graphene-based wafer-scale device. And that's just for starters. The transistor that the researchers have developed is a relatively large one, with a gate length of 240 nanometers - speeds should increase as the …

    Hardware 5 Feb 2010, 19:30

  • Cisco preps data center interconnect

    Switch upgrade for workload shifting

    Cisco is reportedly prepping a software upgrade for its flagship Nexus 7000 switches designed to ease the movement of loads and virtual machines across multiple data centers. Dubbed Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV), the technology essentially encapsulates and forwards Layer 2 Ethernet LAN traffic across disparate data …

    Data Networking 5 Feb 2010, 20:40

  • City supe slaps bank for account compromise

    $378,000 Ukraine transfer

    A supervisor for the town of Poughkeepsie, New York lashed out at a local bank after someone siphoned $378,000 out of municipal coffers and transferred it to Ukraine. Supervisor Patricia Myers, who waited more than three weeks to disclose details of the heist, didn't question whether any of the responsibility rested with …

    Security 5 Feb 2010, 21:18

  • Microsoft banner ads vanish from Facebook

    Search only for social network sugardaddy

    Microsoft will no longer handle display ads on Facebook, as the companies rejiggered the advertising pact they announced in 2007 when Redmond stuffed $240m into the social-networking site. "We made the mutual decision that Facebook would take over responsibility for selling display advertisements on its own site," reads a blog …

    Media 5 Feb 2010, 21:21

  • Google's Nexus One sales still sluggish

    But that's just fine with Mountain View

    As Google's Nexus One smartphone celebrates its one-month birthday, word comes that Mountain View has sold a mere 80,000 of the devices. But if you believe Google's mobility chief Andy Rubin, that number is just fine with him. When Google's self-described superphone was released, Rubin told GigaOM's Om Malik that he thought …

    Phones 5 Feb 2010, 21:48

  • Canonical scoops Alfresco man for operations

    Ubuntu execution

    Open-source evangelist and überblogger Matt Asay has been named as chief operating officer of Canonical, Ubuntu's commercial sponsor. Asay will align strategic goals and operational activities, optimize day-to-day operations, and lead Canonical's marketing and back-office functions, Canonical said Friday. He joins Canonical …

    Operating Systems 5 Feb 2010, 22:04

  • Shuttle Endeavour 'go' for Sunday blastoff

    Tranquility and tweets

    NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is ready for a pre-dawn launch this Sunday, carrying a new room and seven-window observation dome to the International Space Station. Officials at Kennedy Space Center said liftoff is go for 4:39 AM EST (9:39 AM GMT, 1:39 AM PST), with an 80 per cent chance of good weather. "The team is …

    Science 5 Feb 2010, 23:36