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22nd February 2010 Archive

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  • Microsoft's Mountain man sees Jobsian past in .NET

    Like NeXTSTEP. But 'open'

    Nearly 10 years ago, Dan'l Lewin was given an almost unenviable role - to be Microsoft's ambassador in Silicon Valley, a place hostile towards his new employer. But this former senior Apple executive asked for it. Lewin was named vice-president of .NET development in January 2001, with the job of bringing start-ups and …

    Developer 22 Feb 05:02

  • Free Software Foundation urges Google to open On2 codec

    Do you believe in freedom? Or yourself?

    Now that Google has completed its acquisition of video compression outfit On2 Technologies, a representative of the Free Software Foundation has urged Mountain View to release On2's latest codec under an irrevocable free license and use it to replace Adobe Flash on YouTube. "With your purchase of On2, you now own both the …

    Music and Media 22 Feb 06:02

  • Cray swings profit on Q4 revenue dive

    Thanks, Uncle Sam

    Supercomputer maker Cray finished out 2009 better than many might have expected it to do, reversing to a modest $3m profit on a 43 per cent revenue decline to $88.3m in the fourth quarter ended in December. It is hard to blame your biggest customer for cutting into your sales and profits, and Cray came as close as it dared to …

    HPC 22 Feb 06:14

  • HP at storage crossroads

    Comment Plans to move downmarket, away from external storage

    In the rosy glow of better quarterly results from HP, one forlorn story of mediocre performance repeated itself. StorageWorks declined 3 per cent and EVA revenues fell 5 per cent year on year. Shortly after Mark Hurd became HP's CEO in 2005, the StorageWorks division was in a mess, with a history of what we called embarassing …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 08:02

  • Iron Mountain thinking about a long, cool drink of Mimosa

    Comment Archiving to the rusty mountain cloud

    The Iron Mountain repository could be getting an email and file archiving software wrapper with strong rumours that Iron Mountain plans to buy Mimosa. Iron Mountain is a paper and tape records repository company, famously started to store mushrooms in an old iron-ore mine. Then it branched out into what became its core …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 09:47

  • Endeavour touches down at Kennedy

    Shuttle home following 'outstanding mission'

    Space shuttle Endeavour wrapped its two-week STS-130 mission to the International Space Station last night, touching down at Kennedy Space Center at 03:20 GMT. Shuttle Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses praised the crew's "outstanding job" of mating the Tranquility node and seven-windowed cupola to the ISS, enthusing: "It …

    Space 22 Feb 09:54

  • McKinnon gets a date for 'final' appeal

    May appointment with destiny

    Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon and his legal team have been given three months to prepare for a judicial hearing on whether the Home Secretary proceeded correctly in allowing extradition proceedings to proceed in spite of dire medical warnings. A judicial review will consider the strength of medical opinion that the Asperger's …

    Law 22 Feb 09:54

  • Mixed messages for UK small biz

    Recession, isn't it?

    The British economy is showing some signs of recovery, but January's fall in retail sales is a sign that any recovery is weak and still needs help from government and low interest rates. Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed sales fell in January by 1.8 per cent compared to December. David Kern, Chief …

    Small Biz 22 Feb 10:10

  • Web2.0rhea means ‘higher insurance premiums’

    Status: Being robbed :(

    Web2.0rhea sufferers may pay a high price for their compulsive use of Twitter and Facebook, in the form of higher insurance premiums. A witty site called PleaseRobMe.com has shown how easy it is. The site finds user profiles of users on Twitter and other social networks who’ve listed their addresses, and also indicated that …

    Applications 22 Feb 10:17

  • Kipping at your desk is highly productive, say boffins

    'The hippocampus is like an email inbox'

    Splendid news for those among us who occasionally wake up with a snort at our desks, hastily wiping drool off our chins and looking around guiltily. Boffins have annouced that a brief zizz during the day enhances performance and makes people more efficient and productive. According to Matthew Walker, a trick-cyclist out of UC …

    Biology 22 Feb 10:28

  • Apple to take iPad orders this week?

    Fanboy credit cards at the ready

    Want a the 3G-less Apple iPad? The Mac maker will begin taking advance orders for the product later this week, it has been claimed. The news comes from website AppAdvice - formerly AppleiPhoneApps.com - and is said to derive from "a reliable source... familiar with the matter". Said mole says Apple's online store will begin …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 10:47

  • Twitter phish pwned profiles push penis pills

    As Facebook 'goldmembers' hoodwinked into costly SMS scam

    Twitter users were hit by potent phishing attacks over the weekend that have already led to spam runs from compromised accounts. Miscreants posted messages disguised as humorous updates on the Twitter micro-blogging service as part of an ongoing attack that started on Saturday. The messages - which featured phrases such as " …

    Crime 22 Feb 11:08

  • Samsung models high-end compact

    Flash optics for EX1

    Samsung has taken the wraps off a new premium compact camera pitched an serious snappers. Samsung's EX1: high-end compact The EX1 sports a 24mm f/1.8-2.4 wide-angle Schneider Kreuznach lens that incorporates image stabilisation, Samsung said. The lens has a 3x optical zoom. Behind it sits a 10Mp sensor built from a "high …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 11:13

  • Argentinians invade Falkland Islands website

    Sovereignty violated in Penguin News hack outrage

    Argentinian hackers yesterday raised their national flag over the Falkland Islands' Penguin News - a temporary occupation in which they laid out their case for sovereignty over the South Atlantic paradise island group. The invaders' bullet-point list of claims - backed by an rousing audio recording of the March of the …

    Enterprise Security 22 Feb 11:34

  • Feds open school spycam probe

    MacBook snoop row

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a probe into allegations that a US high school used laptop cameras to monitor students. The investigation is the result of a class action suit filed last week against Lower Merion School District. School student Blake Robbins was told last November he had been accused of " …

    Law 22 Feb 11:47

  • The myth of Britain's manufacturing decline

    Comment It's all built in China now - except the clever stuff

    Woe unto us for we don't make anything any more. We've given up on manufacturing and that's what ails the UK economy. We must therefore invest heavily in a renaissance of making things that we can drop on our feet and all will be right with the world. You don't have to be all that much of a newspaper fanatic to recognise that …

    Financial News 22 Feb 11:49

  • Dell Inspiron Zino HD

    Review A PC to rival the Mac Mini, at last?

    On the face of it, Apple’s Mac Mini makes most 'small form-factor’ PCs look like a pile of junk. The Mini’s ultra-compact design also makes it ideal for use in an office or as a stylish little media centre in the living room. Evidently, Dell has taken note - hence the appearance of its Inspiron Zino range of compact PCs. …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 12:02

  • Cyber attacks will 'catastrophically' spook public, warns GCHQ

    Exclusive Cheltenham spies 'cyber arms race'

    A digital attack against the UK causing even minor damage would have a "catastrophic" effect on public confidence in the government, GCHQ has privately warned Whitehall. The Cheltenham spy agency's new Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) makes the prediction in a document prepared for Cabinet Office and seen by The …

    Enterprise Security 22 Feb 12:02

  • Sony shows off lens-swap compact

    Alpha range addition to sport DSLR-style sensor

    Sony will release its answer to the likes of the Olympus Pen and Panasonic GF1: a premium compact camera with interchangeable lenses. Right now, Sony isn't saying much more than that. It has said the "ultra-compact" will be part of its Alpha range and sport an APS-size image sensor for "DSLR picture quality". It will shoot …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 12:05

  • MPs obsess about expenses, ignore data security

    Addressing two issues at once proves difficult for Tory leader

    The UK parliament is now so obsessed with looking tough over expenses that it is cutting corners on data security, and increasing the risk of a breach of constituent confidentiality. Last week, remarks by Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Winterton, MP - to the effect that he would rather not share a train compartment with the common …

    Enterprise Security 22 Feb 12:20

  • Sony Ericsson snubbed Google over Nexus One

    Contract killer

    Sony Ericsson turned down the chance to make the Googlephone, because it didn't want to become a contract manufacturer - not even for the Chocolate Factory. Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg told Swedish newspaper Sydsvenssan (Swedish only) about the discussions. In the interview Nordberg says relations remain good with Google, …

    Mobile 22 Feb 12:36

  • O2 claims win in UK mobile broadband speed test

    But results not so clear cut

    A survey of UK mobile broadband speeds commissioned by O2 gives the carrier the thumbs up for network performance. The "comprehensive" survey was carried out for O2 by Siroda, a radio engineering, measurement and benchmarking consultancy that's been doing the sort of thing for 20-odd years. And both firms insisted the data had …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 12:44

  • Global warming worst case = Only slight misery increase

    Peasants wouldn't be revolting, they'd be in clover

    Agricultural brainboxes at Stanford University say that global warming isn't likely to seriously affect poor people in developing nations, who make up so much of the human race. Under some scenarios, poor farmers "could be lifted out of poverty quite considerably," according to new research. David Lobell, an agri-boffin …

    Environment 22 Feb 12:45

  • Google digs 6-foot hole for Gears

    It's all about HTML5 now, darlink

    Google wonks have ended development of the company's Gears application platform, less than three years since its release. The Gears API had been created by Mountain View as something of an elixir for developers who wanted to support offline access of their apps. However, Google's allegiance has now shifted to the HTML5 API …

    Applications 22 Feb 12:47

  • Infosec job prospects recover after credit-crunch slide

    Trebles all round, especially for ID management experts

    The information security recruitment market is beginning to recover, after problems with the wider economy pushed job prospects and salaries down to a record low last summer, according to a new UK-focused salary survey. Information Security was hit by the recession worse than other areas of corporate governance, internal audit …

    Small Biz 22 Feb 12:59

  • Overland's Nasdaq market cap gap trap map

    $12m extra funding shows the route out of trouble

    Back from the dead? It's a little too soon to say, but Overland Storage - threatened with costly ejection by Nasdaq because its market capitalisation was under $15m - has got a $12m stock issue to put that threat into touch. It's not a done Nasdaq deal yet, but the outcome seems pretty certain. CEO and president Eric Kelly …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 13:19

  • Virgin offers cut-price data roaming in Europe

    Buy a 'Travel Pass' and save

    Virgin Media today launched new packages to allow its mobile customers send and receive data in Europe rather more cheaply than they have been able to so far. According to Virgin's roaming rates, its punters are currently billed £5 for every megabyte of data they send and receive while abroad. That rate applies to both pay-as …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 13:28

  • Siemens' IT workers ballot for strike action at Beeb

    Iced pay packets cold-shouldered by disgruntled staff

    Siemens IT staff working at the BBC are mulling possible strike action over a planned pay freeze by the tech firm. Bectu said it was sending out ballot papers to members today, in which the broadcasting union recommends industrial action. The ballot will close on 19 March and followed Siemens' decision to bring in a pay …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 13:57

  • Double-Take disaster recovery takes to the clouds

    Up sh*t creek? Try our paddle

    Server systems can now be protected against failure with Double-Take replication to servers in Amazon's cloud. Double-Take provides replication software to copy a local physical or virtual server's disk writes to a remote server so that, should the local server fail, the remote one can be started up with up-to-date data. Dean …

    Storage 22 Feb 14:02

  • Wide open spaces mark Mobile World Congress 2010

    Comment Everyone united - in pursuing their own agenda

    Barcelona 2010 will be remembered as the year the industry banded together against a common enemy: the Americans. The first day of Mobile World Congress is when the big announcements come, and sure enough Nokia and Microsoft didn't disappoint with a new platform apiece, even if we're not going to be able to use either of them …

    Mobile 22 Feb 14:11

  • OFT requests T-Orange investigation

    Competitors breath sigh of relief

    The Office of Fair Trading has requested control of the investigation into the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, making a quick decision unlikely and delighting the competition. The request (pdf) asks that the European Commission hand over the UK parts of the investigation to the UK authorities. It has requested this on the basis …

    Mobile 22 Feb 15:18

  • IBM flicks out HS22V Xeon blade

    Sharpened for virtualization

    IBM has launched a new Xeon-based blade server for BladeCenter boxes that it says is tuned specifically to support virtualization hypervisors that in turn run virtual Linux or Windows instances. What IBM means mostly is that the box has gobs of memory and fast and small flash drives for storage. The single-wide, full-height …

    Servers 22 Feb 15:25

  • Tricorder/Aliens-motion-tracker handscanner kit gets $6m

    3D air-bongo mouse shark tech in DARPA cashgasm

    Roguish Pentagon kill-nerds have decided to spend more than $6m on a miraculous handheld scanner along the lines of a Star Trek Tricorder or Aliens Colonial Marine motion-tracker. The through-walls people detector will work in the same way as the mysterious brain-slime electrofield senses of sharks and manta rays. Now we just …

    Science 22 Feb 15:37

  • Twitter bomb threat joke man faces possible jail sentence

    Updated No laughing matter

    A Twitter user who posted a "joke" bomb threat against a UK airport could be jailed after pleading guilty to sending a menacing message. Paul Chambers, 26, of Balby, Doncaster, admitted posting an ill-considered message onto Twitter about Robin Hood Airport, South Yorkshire, on 6 January after the airport closed as a result of …

    Mobile 22 Feb 15:48

  • Student racks up £8000 mobile broadband bill

    Overseas dongle use warning

    Orange has hit a student with a bill for almost eight grand for using a 3G dongle in France for a month. The salutary story of William Harrison, 22, now in his third year a Nottingham University, was told in this weekend's Observer newspaper. Last summer, Harrison signed up for Orange dongle so he would have internet access …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 16:07

  • Zmanda hooks Tivoli cop into MySQL

    Open source backup glue

    Open source vendor Zmanda is adding hooks into its MySQL database backup software for shops using IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager to mastermind the policies. The company on Monday unfurled a new feature for Zmanda Recovery Manager called — get ready for some unwieldily precision here —Tivoli Storage Manager Option for Zmanda …

    Software 22 Feb 17:01

  • Samsung promises Euro 3D TV release first

    Loads of kit out next month

    Samsung reckons it will be the first company to release a 1080p LED-backlit 3D TV in Europe. The South Korean giant will begin shipping 3D-capable kit in Europe in March, with additional members of its existing 8 and 7 series of LED TVs and 6-series LCDs. It will also release a 3D Blu-ray player, the BD-C6900. 3D plasmas TVs …

    Reg Hardware 22 Feb 17:09

  • Brussels data watchdog cries foul over secret copyright talks

    Hustinx left out in the cold

    The man charged with protecting EU citizens' personal data and privacy has protested at being frozen out of secret negotiations to tighten international copyright law online. Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, spoke out after a draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) leaked on Friday. It …

    Government 22 Feb 17:10

  • AMD's 'Magny-Cours' Opterons surface on eBay

    Four 12-core CPUs. Yours for only $7,700

    If you can't wait until the end of March or so to get your hands on the dozen-core "ys" Opteron 6100 processors due from Advanced Micro Devices, then some cagey system builders have a deal for you out on eBay. Oakville Mehlville Services, a service provider based in St Louis, Missouri, has put four of the Socket G34 processors …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 18:04

  • US pinpoints author of Google attack code, says report

    China had 'special access' to work

    US investigators have pinpointed the author of a key piece of code used in the alleged cyber attacks on Google and at least 33 other companies last year, according to a new report. Citing a researcher working for the US government, The Financial Times reports that a Chinese freelance security consultant in his 30s wrote the …

    Security 22 Feb 18:06

  • CollabNet chews up scrum dev house

    Danube Technologies down the hatch

    CollabNet is stuffing scrum into its web-hosted development arsenal with the purchase of Danube Technologies, a maker of scrum-based project management software. Distributed development specialist CollabNet claims that more and more organizations are keen on the scrum method of breaking down the development process into …

    Developer 22 Feb 19:07

  • Iron Mountain downs its Mimosa

    $112m buy

    Our sources were right. Iron Mountain has gone ahead and bought Mimosa Systems and its NearPoint email, file, and SharePoint archiving software. The price is a cool $112m, the high-end of our suggested range, giving Mimosa's venture cap funders a tidy profit on their roughly $66m investment and indicating that this was no …

    Channel Register 22 Feb 20:42

  • Microsoft ties SharePoint into application-virtualization play

    Office 2010 opener

    Microsoft's application virtualization software - App-V - has been updated to fully support the up-coming next edition of Office. On Monday, the company delivered App-V 4.6, the first release of its application virtualization software engineered - it claimed - to work closely with Office. App-V is a component of Microsoft's …

    Virtualization 22 Feb 22:46

  • Google's MapReduce patent - no threat to stuffed elephants

    Hadoop will keep its head

    In mid-January, Google won a patent for MapReduce, the distributed data crunching platform that underpins its globe-spanning online infrastructure. And that means there's at least a question mark hanging over Hadoop, the much-hyped open source platform that helps drive Yahoo!, Facebook, Microsoft's Bing, and an ever-expanding …

    HPC 22 Feb 22:49

  • HTC Smart: A smartphone for the rest of us?

    MWC longs to let them eat cake

    Last week's Mobile World Congress reinforced the trend for smartphone capabilities to migrate down the food chain in to low cost handsets, spreading the mobile internet to wider user bases. Phones like the HTC Smart are leading the way, and the operators are coming up with consumer propositions to match - often involving their …

    Mobile 22 Feb 23:30