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12th February 2010 Archive

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  • China Mobile goes big on proximity payments

    WuMart first to sign up for electro-wallet SIM

    China Mobile has launched a proximity payment service based on RF SIM technology, and with China Telecom announcing trials the standard is probably unstoppable. RF SIMs are now available to Chinese customers prepared to shell out ¥150 (around £15) for one, according to Alibaba.com. The SIM drops into any existing handset, and …

    Mobile 12 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Google buys medium-sized mammal with social disease

    Questionable Aardvark

    Google has purchased an Aardvark. As first reported by TechCrunch, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory just acquired a "social search" service named for an nocturnal African mammal. According to an anonymous source speaking with TechCrunch, Google paid about $50m for Aardvark. Aardvark - founded by, yes, ex-Googlers - lets …

    Media 12 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Microsoft's innovation mission explained

    Beyond the Valley of automation

    Microsoft took flak last week for a corporate culture that one former executive claimed was killing good ideas and innovation. There's no better place to debate this and the related subject of whether Microsoft is "relevant" than Silicon Valley. It's home to Apple and Google - two companies re-inventing personal computing and …

    Applications 12 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Racist content on US server 'within UK jurisdiction'

    Court of Appeal rules it's our problem

    The law of England and Wales applies to material published online, even if it is hosted on a server in another country, the Court of Appeal has ruled. As long as a substantial measure of the activities takes place in England, its law will apply, it said. Two men's appeals against convictions for publishing racially …

    Law 12 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • Big Blue boffins hatch dirt-cheap solar cells

    'Earth abundant' materials

    IBM researchers have developed a new class of solar-powered electricity-generating cells that they claim will bring photovoltaic cells closer to cost parity with conventional energy sources. The researchers from IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York have published their findings in a paper entitled " …

    Science 12 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Can $100m a year keep Google on the iPhone?

    Jobsian search rumor 'not credible'

    A new report says that Apple has over one hundred million reasons not to dump Google from the iPhone and replace it with either Microsoft Bing or its own made-in-Cupertino search service. According to a source "familiar with Apple's operations" speaking with Silicon Valley Insider, the rumor that Apple will launch its own …

    Mobile 12 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Microsoft to hook Facebook game maker?

    Crazy valuations apply

    Microsoft's interest in social networks could see the company buy Facebook games company CrowdStar. In a report with more hedging than Hampton Court's maze, Bloomberg said a deal "may" be weeks away and that venture funded CrowdStar "might" choose to remain independent. CrowdStar, maker of the Happy Aquarium game, "may" be …

    Financial News 12 Feb 2010, 09:02

  • Chip and PIN security busted

    UnVerified by PIN attack undermines bank security assurances

    Security researchers have demonstrated a gaping security hole in Chip and PIN credit card authorisations which undermines trust in the technology as a means to verify retail purchases. Cambridge University security researchers have demonstrated how it might be possible to trick the card into thinking it’s doing a chip-and- …

    Security 12 Feb 2010, 09:18

  • Foreign objects in orifices a bigger killer than laptops

    Notebooks safer than bees - it's official

    If you're worried about the prospect of dying at the hands of a flaming laptop battery while travelling, relax. It's far more likely you'll be killed by a firework, non-venomous insect, "legal intervention" or a foreign object in a natural orifice. Computerworld has kindly combed through Federal Aviation AUthority data to …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 10:14

  • WD speeds up a Caviar Black interface

    6gig SATA for the 1TB jobbie

    Western Digital has a faster Caviar Black available, a 6Gbit/s SATA 1TB model. WD's Caviar Black drives come in 2TB, 1TB, 750GB, 640GB and 500GB models and all use the standard 3Gbit/s SATA drive interface.The new 3.5-inch model's name is the WD1002FAEX, and it comes with a double speed 6Gbit/s SATA interface, along with the …

    Storage 12 Feb 2010, 10:26

  • High performance for the masses

    Reg reader survey Commoditisation at the high-end

    High-Performance Computing (HPC) has traditionally been seen as the domain of the über-specialist. It’s as close as the IT industry will ever get to “2 Fast, 2 Furious” – gangs of highly technical experts pushing their custom-built computers to the limit with an aim to win that ultimate prize, a place in the world …

    HPC 12 Feb 2010, 10:35

  • Bikini atoll residents now get less radiation than Euros, Yanks

    Potassium coconuts fix 'Castle Bravo' H-bomb whoopsie

    US government nuke boffins say that Bikini atoll and other Pacific islands blown up by America in 1950s atomic-bomb tests are now entirely safe to live on - in fact they are safer, from the point of view of radiation dose, than living in Europe or the continental USA. According to Lawrence Livermore nuke lab boffins Bill …

    Science 12 Feb 2010, 10:38

  • UK universities being broken by border control measures

    Updated Students turning up, clocking in, getting tagged

    The law of unintended consequences has arrived in full force on British campuses, as government policies designed to control immigration turn academic staff into state informers and impose draconian surveillance on UK students and academics. That is the conclusion of a report out this week from the Manifesto Club entitled …

    Government 12 Feb 2010, 10:44

  • Brit-born astronaut completes first spacewalk

    Tranquility node mated to orbiting outpost

    British-born astronaut Nicholas Patrick (pictured below) yesterday exited the International Space Station on his first spacewalk, accompanying Bob Behnken on the 6-hour, 32-minute EVA to attach the US's Tranquility node and cupola to the orbiting outpost. Once Tranquility was successfully mated to the station's Unity module, " …

    Science 12 Feb 2010, 11:02

  • Xiotech cracks GlassHouse

    Joint marketing and development deal

    Xiotech's new management team has scored a big channel win by signing up GlassHouse to work on joint development and marketing efforts using Xiotech's ISE technology. GlassHouse is a data centre infrastructure consulting services company that has grown by acquisition that has filed for an IPO after an earlier IPO attempt …

    The Channel 12 Feb 2010, 11:08

  • Google coughs to PR gaffe with privacy-lite Buzz

    But keeps Twitterbook service as auto opt-in

    Google has tweaked some settings in Gmail Buzz following a huge privacy backlash against Mountain View’s latest social networking effort. The company’s decision to automatically opt every Gmail account into Buzz once those users accepted a very simple invite to the Twitter-Facebook-like service when logging into their web mail …

    Applications 12 Feb 2010, 11:09

  • Copan's ex-CEO turns up at Attivio

    Mark Ward resurfaces

    Mark Ward, the last CEO at collapsed storage vendor Copan, has turned up in the top sales role at Attivio. Copan provided MAID (Massive Array of Idle Drives) storage arrays in which three quarters of the drives were spun down to conserve energy and generate less heat, allowing the drives to be packed more closely together than …

    Storage 12 Feb 2010, 11:18

  • Adobe pushes out Flash security fix

    Related Reader patch lined up for Tuesday

    Adobe has published a cross-platform update for Flash that addresses a potentially serious security flaw. Flash Player users are advised to upgrade to version 10.0.45.2 to plug a hole in earlier versions of the software that means the domain sandbox security protection could be bypassed to make unauthorized cross-domain …

    Security 12 Feb 2010, 11:27

  • Motorola hands itself divorce papers - again

    Company tells itself, 'we need to talk'

    Motorola has finally set itself a date to breakup, and plans to divest itself of itself in the first quarter of next year. In the meantime, the firm will "separate into two independent, publicy traded companies." One will bring together its mobile devices and home businesses, while the other will cover its enterprise mobility …

    Networks 12 Feb 2010, 11:54

  • Cloud Engines Pogoplug 2

    Review Build your own online file store

    Pogoplug - now in its second incarnation - is the kind of gadgets 'real' geeks hate. It's brightly coloured - an awful white and pink combo; not a plus point - it's consumer friendly and, when all is said and done, it's just a network adaptor for hard drives. Why work a weeny, girly gadget when you can maintain an enormous, …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 12:02

  • Spanish city shuns Brit 'Saga louts'

    Sherry-swilling over-50s not welcome in Jerez

    The tourism chief of Andalucia's Jerez de la Frontera has decided he's had enough of riotous Brits who invade the town and "do nothing but drink", the Sun reports. Juan Manuel García Bermúdez declared: "We don't want the English who come over on cheap flights and do nothing apart from drink all day long. We only want tourism …

    Bootnotes 12 Feb 2010, 12:04

  • Windows 7 'genuine' nagware winging its way to OS

    Microsoft 'voluntary' update to scan for legit copies

    Microsoft has been keeping a surprisingly low profile about its recent nagware win - could that have anything to do with its latest efforts to sink marauding software pirates? The company confirmed yesterday that it would pump out a Windows Activation Technologies patch for Windows 7 before the end of this month. Microsoft …

    Operating Systems 12 Feb 2010, 12:09

  • BOFH: The PFY Chronicles

    Episode 1 The underdog's on top... or sidling upwards, at least

    It’s a bleak morning in Mission Control. Even the Boss’s normal expression of guilty ignorance is replaced by one that could almost be mistaken for loss... "Dead?" he asks quietly. "I'm afraid so," I respond. "But... he was doing so well." "He was, but then that dodgy life support machine switched itself off." "I thought …

    BOFH 12 Feb 2010, 12:20

  • Wreck of 1930s flying aircraft carrier dubbed 'historic'

    Captain Scarlet style dirigible Cloudbase honoured

    The US government has added the crash site of the most powerful flying aircraft carrier ever built to the National Register of Historic Places, 75 years after the event. Fleet Week really meant something back then The airship USS Macon - comparable in size to the even more famous and equally doomed liner Titanic - suffered …

    Science 12 Feb 2010, 12:35

  • SpinVox carcass laid bare in final accounts

    And you will know us by the trail of our debt

    Dragon's Den TV star Julie Meyer described SpinVox as "the first major technology success story out of Europe", but the company's final accounts show a business running at a huge loss, spending heavily, and with interest payments alone exceeding income. The accounts also show that CEO Christine Domecq repaid the company a six …

    Broadband 12 Feb 2010, 13:22

  • With MS funding, No2ID gains entry to EU eID group

    Project STORK and IPS now duly surveilled

    ID card campaign group No2ID has - with a little financial backing from Microsoft - won admission to the industry working group of Project STORK, the EU programme for devising interoperability standards for electronic ID systems across Europe. Representing "civil society interests", No2ID will be able to attend and report on …

    Government 12 Feb 2010, 13:25

  • NHS Toolkit takedown will inconvenience docs, not patients

    Analysis Medics and sec-experts assess 3-week sicknote

    Patient care will not be affected by an NHS decision to pull a doctors' appraisal website offline to improve its security, but the life of UK doctors will be complicated. The return of the NHS Appraisal Toolkit, which provides an online database that allows NHS doctors to prepare for their annual appraisals, is not due until 3 …

    Management 12 Feb 2010, 13:48

  • Microsoft fesses to pitiful performance on volume licensing site

    Slowly, really slowly, working towards a fix

    Microsoft has admitted that its refurbished but hamstrung volume licensing website is still limping along for some customers and partners, who are yet to gain full access to the portal, or worse are logging in and being served the wrong details. The company told The Register today that it was still struggling to provide some …

    Management 12 Feb 2010, 13:51

  • When will Symbian compile?

    World's biggest code dump awaits open source compiler

    Symbian won plaudits for releasing the Symbian/S60 codebase last week. It's not to be sniffed at, since it represents the biggest release of software under an "open" license ever undertaken, and the first time a market leader has made such a move. There's just one problem, the company openly acknowledges: it won't compile. …

    Mobile 12 Feb 2010, 14:22

  • Vodafone eyes iPhone switchers for fresh Sim-only deals

    Carrot dangled for O2 contracts coming to an end

    Vodafone has rolled out revamped Sim-only price plans. Prices run from £10 to £30, the ten packages offer a mix of bundled talk minutes, texts, calls to landlines and mobile internet data transfer totals. Some also bundle BT Openzone Wi-Fi access. Some contracts run for 30-day periods, others for a full year. So, for £25 a …

    Phones 12 Feb 2010, 14:33

  • Why British radio is broken (it's boring, boring stations)

    For those about to Planet Rock...

    If you only read one story about British radio this year, make sure it's this one. Grant Goddard has surveyed the ruins of the landscape and come up with some pithy conclusions. It's an even-handed piece, but spares nothing in vanity of a sector - public and private - that thought technology (through DAB) could substitute for …

    Media 12 Feb 2010, 15:02

  • Chilean mint misspells Chile

    Heads roll over 50-peso coin blunder

    The general manager of the Chilean mint has been given his marching orders after failing in a pretty fundamental area of his responsibilities: to ensure the country's name is spelt correctly on its national currency. According to the BBC, thousands of 50-peso coins were issued in 2008 bearing the legend "REPUBLICA DE CHIIE". …

    Bootnotes 12 Feb 2010, 15:03

  • Spain to get Europe's first major-vendor smartbook

    HP AirLife 100 unveiled

    HP has launched the first ARM-based netbook from a major vendor in Europe, though you'll - for now, at least - have to live in Spain to get it. HP's Compaq AirLife 100 is a 10.1in haptic-enabled touchscreen netbook with 16GB of Flash storage, an SD card slot and a "full milti-tasking operating system". Which, since you ask, …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 15:09

  • Street View pulls Canadian murder scene

    'We're very sorry if it caused any distress'

    Google has pulled images of an Ontario murder scene from Street View, the Windsor Star reports. At around 2am on 21 July, 2009, 24-year-old Nicholas Ingram was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the Leopard's Lounge and Broil strip club at 1190 Wyandotte St. W, Windsor. Later that day, the Steet View vehicle passed by and …

    Bootnotes 12 Feb 2010, 15:26

  • Buffy's heart gets wrong kind of flutter from Google Buzz

    Social tinnitus Vampire Slayer flees creepy social web

    Google Buzz hasn't just upset social web mavens, it's also alarmed US actress and sometime Vampire Slayer Felicia Day too. The flame-haired tellybox star unwittingly found herself trapped deep inside the Gmail Buzz vortex yesterday. But after a quick look around she turned off Mountain View Chocolate Factory's creepy social …

    Applications 12 Feb 2010, 15:33

  • Teradata ekes out sales and profit growth

    Data warehousing Dell target?

    Data warehousing system maker Teradata has reported that both sales and profits were up a smidgen in the final quarter of 2009. It's cautiously optimistic about this year, despite increasing pressure from Oracle, IBM, Netezza, and others in the data warehousing racket. In the fourth quarter ended in December, hardware and …

    Servers 12 Feb 2010, 18:50

  • Opera beta bear hugs plug-in-free video

    Mini surfers top 50 million

    With the beta release of its latest desktop browser, Opera now gives you plug-in-free video. The Opera 10.5 beta joins Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome in offering support for the HTML5 video tag - which Opera first proposed back in 2007. This leaves Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the odd browser out. …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 18:59

  • Ballmer locked and loaded for WinMo 7 debut

    What's in a name?

    Monday looks like the day when Microsoft plans to finally unveil its Windows Mobile comeback, challenging Google's Android and the Apple iPhone. According to reports, the company is planning to use the opening day of the GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain to publicly show off what has, until now, been called Windows …

    Phones 12 Feb 2010, 19:50

  • Frosty fanbois navigate iPhone with sausage

    Meaty multi-touch

    Enterprising South Koreans have found a solution to the problem of using their iPhones in frigid weather: sausages. From Clusterflock comes word that a Korean cold snap has inspired iPhone users in that country to use CJ Corporation's meaty Max snack sausages as iPhone styli, keeping their hands well-protected in toasty gloves …

    Phones 12 Feb 2010, 22:00

  • World of Google zombies mistake news story for Facebook

    It's not a search engine. It's global hypnosis

    Just how deep is Google's hold on the minds of the world's netizens? So deep that if the web giant boosts a news story about Facebook and logins to the top of its search results, myriad net surfers will mistake the news story for the Facebook login page, wondering why they can't login to it and why it looks nothing like Facebook …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 23:17

  • Outlooked Office for Mac 2011 unveiled

    Good-bye, Entourage. Hello, Visual Basic

    Microsoft has announced Office for Mac 2011, which will replace the much-maligned Entourage with Outlook, restore Visual Basic support, and add what Redmond's MacBU (Macintosh business unit) calls "new co-authoring tools." "You've told us that working together across platforms is a priority to you," MacBU general manager Eric …

    Hardware 12 Feb 2010, 23:43