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10th February 2010 Archive

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  • Open sourcers pump Eucalyptus clouds with data

    Terracotta caches in

    Eucalyptus Systems - the operation offering an open source platform meant to mimic Amazon EC2 inside private data centers - has partnered with fellow open-sourcer Terracotta to help customers upload and then access their data in private clouds. On Tuesday, the two companies promised tighter integration between Terracotta's …

    Servers 10 Feb 00:56

  • Webhost in five day server FAIL

    Updated HostV's virtual private server node goes very private

    Update: This story has been updated with additional facts from Cirtex CEO John Xie. New York-based webhost HostV - a division of Cirtex - is five days into an server node outage that has left customer websites completely inaccessible. London-based Register reader Alan Ayoub says the outage has brought down 10 of his sites, …

    Networks 10 Feb 01:03

  • Microsoft drops open-source birthday gift with FAST

    Lucidly imaginative?

    As birthdays go, it's not a bad present. Microsoft's decision to sacrifice FAST's Enterprise Search Platform (ESP) development on Linux and Unix for Windows potentially gives open-source search providers like Lucid Imagination a free pass. In announcing the news Monday, FAST chief technology officer Bjørn Olstad was clearly …

    Software 10 Feb 06:02

  • Big Blue says Power7 will make world smarter

    It's not a chip. It's a system

    If you believe that putting sensors on all manner of infrastructure systems, gathering telemetry on them in real time, and automating how they perform to the nth degree will all make the world a better place, you're well suited to a job at IBM selling its vision of a Smarter Planet - and some Power7 servers. The top brass of …

    Servers 10 Feb 06:02

  • USB hack connects Droid to printers, video cams, and more

    Any device Linux can tap...

    A reverse engineering expert has disclosed a way to make his Motorola Droid host USB-enabled devices, a hack that allows the smartphone for the first time to directly connect to printers, video cameras, TV tuners, and a wide variety of other peripherals. The modification was devised by Mike Kershaw from Kismet and Mike Baker …

    Mobile 10 Feb 06:13

  • Govt inserts battery take-back scheme

    Battery sellers must collect them

    Can't decide what to do with all those old batteries you've got lying around? Got a box full of them? Or have you simply been binning them as they've run out? Properly disposing of flat AAAs, AAs,Cs, Ds and 9Vs should now be a more easy process thanks to legislation which came into force this month. The new law, part of the …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 07:02

  • DoH splurges £2.72m on Adwords

    No shortage of hospital bids

    The Department of Health has been promoting its online services through the use of the Google Adwords bidding systems. Health minister Phil Hope said that the department spent £2,720,457.11 between 1 February 2009 and 31 January 2010, running 21,939 active search terms on Google's Adwords service, through which users bid for …

    Government 10 Feb 07:02

  • Google stock shunned by China

    It's no Apple

    China has released its first public disclosure of its US stock investments, and there's one profitable, fast-growing company that's conspicuous by its absence: Google. The list of US companies in which the China Investment Corporation (CIC) holds stock totals 68, adds up to a cool $9.63bn, and is spread across a wide swath of …

    Business 10 Feb 08:02

  • Boffins spy liquid water on Saturn's moon

    Enceladus is a hydrated mistress

    There's little doubt now that the Saturn moon Enceladus hides a vast, liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. Massive plumes of water vapor discovered by Cassini in 2005 sparked speculation of sub-surface liquid water within the tiny moon. Later, fly-bys found that the massive geysers - whose jet steams supply the material for …

    Space 10 Feb 08:02

  • Morse ups profits on flat sales

    Not all bad

    Morse Group failed to grow revenue in the six months ended 31 December, but did manage a big jump in profits. Revenue was £107.6m versus £107.5m last year. But profit before tax was £4.1m compared to £2.2m in the second half of 2008. Ebitda was up 94 per cent to £4.6m. Morse made an operating profit of £4.1m against a £2.7m …

    Channel Register 10 Feb 08:51

  • Mandybill reaches milestone, teeth intact

    Radio haggling continues

    The Digital Economy Bill has reached the Report Stage in the Lords. It's survived intact, the Lords rejecting a clutch of last minute Google-friendly amendments. It may yet sprout more amendments before arriving in the Commons after a Third Reading. Proposals by Lord Lucas would have permitted any "search engine" to link to …

    Music and Media 10 Feb 09:02

  • Tech salaries up slightly

    Unless you include inflation...

    IT workers in the US can expect a slight pay rise this year - but not enough to offset inflation. After two years of job cuts it is unlikely anyone will complain - and front line staff look to have more chance of a rise than their bosses. The median raise is 1.8 per cent, while inflation for 2010 is expected to be 2.6 per cent …

    IT Director 10 Feb 09:07

  • Kaspersky defends false detection experiment

    Claws in copy cat dust-up

    Kaspersky Lab has defended its handling of a controversial experiment criticised by some as a marketing exercise of questionable technical value. The Russian anti-virus firm created 20 innocent executable files, adding fake malware detections for ten of the sample, before uploading the files to online online malware scanning …

    Malware 10 Feb 09:45

  • China Mobile puts boot into NFC

    Orders three million competing chips

    China Mobile has placed an order for three million "RF SIM" devices, confirming that we won't be seeing NFC in China any time soon. Near Field Communications World reports that China Mobile has placed the order for RF SIM chips, which come from Directel and compete with the Nokia-backed Near Field Communications (NFC) standard …

    Mobile 10 Feb 10:03

  • It's on: Micron is buying Numonyx

    He's bought everyone of us, NAND for everyone of us

    As NAND process geometries shrink, so too does the number of suppliers. That number is decreasing by another one as Micron agrees to buy Numonyx for $1.27bn in an all-stock deal. The deal has been speculated about for weeks as the two, in a flash parable of the talents, pursued their different courses. Micron has been getting …

    Storage 10 Feb 10:22

  • Microsoft genuinely chuffed as judge drops WGA case

    Advantage - Redmond

    Microsoft has claimed victory in a long-running lawsuit brought against the software giant over its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) scheme, after a US judge dismissed the case. Late last week the judge in the District Court for the Western District of Washington dropped the case with prejudice, which means both the defendant …

    Channel Register 10 Feb 10:26

  • Orange overshares in bcc blunder

    300 email addresses accidentally meet

    Orange accidentally shared the email addresses of more than 300 customers yesterday during a bid to find out what they think of the company. The email, passed on to us by several readers, suggests the recipient might like to reply with their thoughts about how customers keep in touch with the operator, along with any …

    Mobile 10 Feb 10:29

  • Bumper Patch Tuesday tackles multiple Windows flaws

    Dirty baker's dozen

    Microsoft has released 13 bulletins, covering 26 vulnerabilities, as part of a bumper Patch Tuesday. All supported versions of Windows will need patching, though Vista and Win 7 (three critical updates) are less exposed than XP and Windows 2000 shops (five critical fixes). Three of the bulletins are particularly severe and …

    Enterprise Security 10 Feb 10:33

  • MTV Mexico pulls South Park episode

    Unauthorised flag-waving prompts auto-censorship

    MTV in Mexico pulled an episode of South Park on Monday night because it didn't have the necessary government permission to show the Mexican flag featured in the cartoon. According to the BBC, 'Pinewood Derby' provoked "keen interest" south of the border when it aired in the US in 2009. The episode has a Mexican president, …

    Entertainment 10 Feb 11:01

  • Seagate serves up 600GB Savvio 10K

    Three platters, Fibre Channel sets out enterprise stall

    Seagate has a fourth generation Savvio 2.5-inch drive boasting 600GB, three platters and both SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces. The Savvio 10K.4 is an enterprise drive for storage arrays that, like the preceding 10K.3, has a 6Gbit/s SAS interface, with dual-port communication. But it also has a 4GBit/s Fibre Channel one, a …

    Storage 10 Feb 11:14

  • Opera auditions for iPhone browser spot

    Much better for one-handed operation

    Opera Software will be demonstrating its eponymous browser on Apple's iPhone next week, but don't expect to see it popping up in iTunes any time soon. The announcement comes ahead of Mobile World Congress, the industry's annual shindig in Barcelona, where Opera Software will be demonstrating Opera Mini running on an iPhone to …

    Mobile 10 Feb 11:25

  • Activists unleash Operation Titstorm on Aussie.gov

    Critics slam DDoS attack as an enormous boob

    Cyberactivists have launched an distributed denial of service attack on Australian government servers, as part of a protest against proposed anti-porn and net censorship regulations. Operation Titstorm, launched on Wednesday, will also involve spam emails, junk faxes and prank phone calls. Spam emails will focus on small- …

    Security 10 Feb 11:47

  • 5000 desktops and a virtualisation project

    Webcast Real world tales from a Reg reader

    If you’ve got ‘Virtualise Desktops’ on your to-do list for 2010, you might want to hold your horses a minute, because we’ve got something that might make that project a little more pleasant. On 18 Feb at 11am GMT we’ve got the project leads from a 5,000 strong desktop virtualisation project joining us in our studio. They come …

    Virtualisation Lab 10 Feb 11:47

  • ISA chairman assures nation: Your data is safe

    Comment Hasn't got any data, so hasn't lost any data

    Fears were growing this week over the safety of ultra-sensitive personal data, as the BBC - in the shape of Jeremy Vine - finally caught up with the new Independent Safeguarding Authority, and quizzed its chairman over their security procedures. On Monday night, Panorama took a close look at the new scheme that went live last …

    Government 10 Feb 12:02

  • Ladies face 'glass cliff' after breaking 'glass ceiling'

    Prof: Chaps only let women drive when disaster looms

    A trick-cyclist in Exeter says that women rising to high leaderships positions in business and politics - so having broken through the "glass ceiling" - are then faced by the additional menace of a "glass cliff". Dr Michelle Ryan and colleagues at Exeter Uni lay out their research in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly …

    IT Director 10 Feb 12:13

  • Pioneer BDP-320 Blu-ray disc player

    Review No frills, quality AV performer

    Pioneer may be a well established name on the Blu-ray spinning circuit by now, but the company's deal with Sharp last year to pool their BD resources means that the BDP-320 is likely to be one of the last pure Pioneer Blu-ray players off the production line. End of an era: Pioneer's BDP-320 The BDP-320 sits in the lower …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 12:18

  • Cambridge Council denies iPad plan

    Little need for big iPhones

    Cambridge City Council has said press reports that it is planning to buy a batch of Apple iPads are incorrect. The council has issued a statement saying that the touchscreen computers, which were released by Apple in the US just last month, are not being considered as an option in its plan to reduce the volume of paper, …

    Mobile 10 Feb 12:19

  • India PayPal mess will take months to fix

    Cheers for letting us know

    PayPal India has used another blog post to update customers mystified as to why personal payments have been switched off. The payment service confirmed that the shutdown was because of questions over whether personal payments are remittances - payments from ex-pat Indian workers. The blog warned that personal payments would …

    Small Biz 10 Feb 12:22

  • Apple bets on Mac-only photo land grab with Aperture 3

    Hopes to snare more professional snappers

    Apple launched Aperture 3 via its online store yesterday, following a brief self-imposed hiatus from the interwebs that led many to speculate that the Jobsian outfit might be announcing UK prices for the iPad. Sadly, for some at least, that didn’t come to pass. Nor did the company announce any fancy new Mac kit. Instead, …

    Applications 10 Feb 12:43

  • Play.com touts Nexus One with added price

    Turning grey into gold

    Customers who want a Nexus One but don't want to buy from Google can now pay an additional hundred and fifty quid to have one shipped through Play.com. The listing was spotted by Macworld, and prices the Nexus One at £599 when supplied by "mobilesNmore" though Play.com's marketplace. Anyone buying direct from Google can expect …

    Mobile 10 Feb 12:50

  • Toshiba commits to Freeview HD

    Updated DVR, TVs incoming

    Toshiba is preparing a Freeview HD set-top DVR. TVs with Freeview HD tuners are coming too. The HDR-5010 digital video recorder will contain a 500GB hard drive and a pair of tuners so you can record one channel while viewing another. Toshiba's HDR-5010: ready to record terrestrially broadcast HD Not that you'll be spoiled …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 12:56

  • Viking frogmen chase Street View spymobile

    Google enjoys a traditional Norwegian welcome

    Last weekend saw the launch of Google's privacy-busting Street View in Norway, and it didn't take long for locals to spot a traditional Viking welcome for the Great Satan of Mountain View's spymobile on the streets of Bergen: Luckily for the Google operative, he was able to outrun the belligerent, rubber-clad locals …

    Bootnotes 10 Feb 13:19

  • Sony unwraps 3D Blu-ray player pair...

    ...which won't play 3D BDs until the summer

    Sony Europe today announced its intention to release 3D Blu-ray Disc players over here, though it was silent on two crucial details: when and how much they will cost. Sony took the wraps off the BDP-S470 at last month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and today added the BDP-S570 to the line-up. They'll go on sale in the US …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 13:40

  • BAA poo-poos Bollywood star's pervscan printout put-on

    Impossible, cry PRs

    BAA has been forced to deny that its security staff are circulating printouts of perv-scanned celebrities after a Bollywood comedian's late night riffing was taken at face value. Shahrukh Khan, currently touting his movie I am Khan, told Jonathan Ross that he had recently been scanty-scanned at Heathrow. He said that the …

    Policing 10 Feb 13:53

  • SONAS offering from IBM covers much ground

    Scale-Out NAS - again

    IBM has launched Scale-Out Network-Attached Storage (SONAS) from one of the far corners of its widespread storage empire - out of the (big) blue, you might say. News came via a tweet from an Ideas International analyst, Chris Ober: not your usual IBM product announcement method. There's an IBM web page here, but there's no …

    Storage 10 Feb 14:10

  • Arab conned into marrying bearded lady

    Gets a nasty shock when missus lifts the veil

    A Dubai man whose fiancée kept her charms hidden under a niqab opted for a quick divorce after his first glimpse beneath the veil revealed she was cross-eyed and sported a beard. According to Gulf News, the unnamed "ambassador" never saw his intended's face on the few times they met, but was convinced all was well since the …

    Bootnotes 10 Feb 14:27

  • NHS appraisal toolkit yanked offline

    This website is frail and weak

    The UK's Department of Health has taken the highly unusual step of suddenly taking a doctors' appraisal website offline for three weeks over concerns it was vulnerable to hacking attacks. The NHS Appraisal Toolkit was taken down on Tuesday (9 February) and is not expected to return until 3 March. The site provides an online …

    Security 10 Feb 15:04

  • Toshiba tunes into TransferJet

    Near-field data-exchange tech coming to laptops

    Toshiba will bring Sony's TransferJet technology to its product range in the latter half of the year. The company today demo'd the near-field communications technology today, using it to transfer photos taken on a specially modified TG01 Windows Mobile smartphone to a similarly prototypical Qosmio laptop. TransferJet was …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 15:08

  • Warner Music gives up on free streaming services

    Er, that's all folks

    Warner Music is to stop licensing its music to free streaming services. Streaming services like Spotify, last.fm and We7, which use adverts and subscriptions, were seen as a great way to wean freetards onto paid-for services. Edgar Bronfman Jr, chief executive at Warner Brothers, said: "Free streaming services are clearly not …

    Music and Media 10 Feb 15:21

  • Real to lose Rhapsody

    Out, damned Spotify

    The new management at Real has lost little time in deciding what to do with Rhapsody, its well-regarded music service. It's getting shot of it. Real will spin it out to operate as a private company, and reduce its 51 per cent majority shareholding. Viacom owns the other 49 per cent via MTV. More details are expected in an …

    Music and Media 10 Feb 15:46

  • Microsoft volume licensing site serves up customer details

    Time to enlist Beetle Juice?

    Microsoft’s woes over at its revamped but pretty flaky Volume Licensing Service Center website continued today, after the firm inadvertently let slip the wrong subscription information to at least one of its customers. Many MS volume licence users have complained about Redmond’s lacklustre efforts to get its VLSC website fully …

    Channel Register 10 Feb 15:49

  • NASA's Sun-gazing sat is no-go

    Solar Dynamics Observatory launch delayed

    NASA canned today's planned launch of its Solar Dynamics Observatory from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station due to unfavourable wind conditions. SDO will, once it gets aloft, "determine how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated, structured, and converted into violent solar events like turbulent solar wind, solar flares, and …

    Space 10 Feb 16:19

  • 'Clumsy' French cop tasers schoolkid

    Shocking demonstration of juice justice

    A "clumsy" French cop is facing discliplinary measures after accidentally tasering a 15-year-old schoolkid, TF1 News reports. The unnamed gendarme was demonstrating the electric enforcer to youngsters at a "career day" in Dole, Jura, on 28 January, when he zapped his victim's leg. The discharge earned the lad a night in …

    Bootnotes 10 Feb 16:23

  • Toshiba preps telly-friendly content store

    Networkable media hard drive en route

    Toshiba is to take on LaCie, Western Digital, Seagate and all the other HDD sellers offering drives designed to be hooked up to an HD TV. The Story TV+ is set to ship in Q3 and will contain 1-2TB of 3.5in HDD storage. Content can be copied onto the drive through its USB 2.0 port - or from cards slipped into its SDHC slot. …

    Reg Hardware 10 Feb 16:49

  • NASA's Sun-gazing sat grounded

    Wind delays launch of Solar Dynamics Observatory

    NASA has cancelled today's planned lift-off of its Solar Dynamics Observatory due to unfavourable wind conditions at Cape Canaveral. When it does finally get off the ground, hopefully tomorrow, SDO's "unprecedented mission will study the Sun and its dynamic behavior". Over five years, it will "determine how the Sun’s magnetic …

    Space 10 Feb 16:57

  • Microsoft erases Windows 8 optimism

    Windows Vista 8 'wow'

    Microsoft has apparently killed a Microsoft employee's blog posting eulogizing its planned successor to Windows 7. The MSDN post that was here and has been cached here, according to Microsoft Kitchen, was thin on details but provided possibly the first hint of how Microsoft plans to pitch the successor to Windows 7. The take …

    Operating Systems 10 Feb 20:24

  • Google will build 1Gbps fiber networks to the home

    The last Google mile

    After building its own browser, its own operating system, its own mobile OS, its own smartphone, its own DNS service, and what amounts to its own private internet, Google is now building its own ultra-high-speed fiber networks to American homes. With a blog post Wednesday morning, the search giant/world power announced it will …

    Networks 10 Feb 21:56

  • Dell servers block un-Dell HDDs

    No more warnings

    Dell is barring the use of non-Dell-qualified hard drives on its newest PowerEdge servers, after years of allowing such drives to be installed with only a warning. Yesterday, the company confirmed the change on a mailing list run by the Dell Linux Engineering team. On the mailing list, a poster asked why his 11th generation …

    Channel Register 10 Feb 22:31

  • YouTube saves dumb children from offensive content

    Safety Mode is on patrol

    YouTube has announced an optional feature designed to protect your dumb and impressionable kids from viewing sexual content, graphic violence, and salty comments on the website. The new "Safety Mode" setting helps scour potentially objectionable content from YouTube that might not be nixed under its community guidelines, such …

    Music and Media 10 Feb 23:29

  • One month later, Google still censors China search

    Comment Premature Mountain View worship

    From the department of premature congratulations: One of China's best-known artists and activists just spoke out in support of Google's "decision" to stop censoring search results inside the world's most populous nation. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece headlined "Google Gives Us Hope," Al Weiwei also said two of his Gmail …

    Security 10 Feb 23:41