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23rd February 2010 Archive

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  • Google unveils one ad server to rule them all

    Combines DoubleClick, native ad manager

    Google has unveiled a new ad serving platform for internet publishers, merging the platform it acquired from DoubleClick in 2008 with its native Google Ad Manager. Mountain View will now offer a single ad serving platform known as DoubleClick for Publishers, or DFP. "We see an opportunity to improve ad serving even further by …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 01:22

  • UK government won't be keeping mobile database

    Leave that to the network operators

    The Home Office has responded to a petition against plans for state registration of mobile phones, by pointing out that the state has no such plans. The petition, on the Number 10 website, was set up by a chap from Privacy International and closed in October last year with 266 signatures. In November the Home Office published …

    Government 23 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • ODF's doomed mission to break into Microsoft Office

    What would you do?

    Could Microsoft's Office team learn a thing or two from those building Internet Explorer and Windows? Depends on what's at stake - and to what extent they're forced to act. This week, Microsoft rolled out the Windows browser ballot screen it agreed to during antitrust settlement talks with European regulators and competitors. …

    Applications 23 Feb 2010, 06:02

  • Chuck Norris botnet doesn't infect routers...

    ...it stares them down until they infect themselves

    A so-called Chuck Norris botnet is hijacking poorly-configured routers and DSL modems. According to ComputerWorld, the botnet spreads by malware that installs itself on routers and modems by guessing the default administrative password and seizing control due to many devices being configured to allow remote access. Masaryk …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 07:02

  • TomTom Go 550 Live

    Review A move in the right direction

    With turn-by-turn navigation rapidly becoming the favoured give-away on smartphones, it's reasonable to ask what the future holds for the dedicated in-car satnav makers. Arguably, there will always be a market for cheap entry level satnav units, because not everyone has a smartphone. At the top end of the market, larger screens …

    Science 23 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Server makers end 2009 on a high normal

    Comment Pumping X64 iron

    Now that Hewlett-Packard and Dell have reported their latest quarterly results, it seems like a good time to do a post mortem on the economic downturn and its effects on server sales for the Big Three: IBM, HP, and Dell. Each of these vendors have to wrestle with product lifecycle and transition issues - IBM and HP more so …

    The Channel 23 Feb 2010, 08:02

  • Google restarts China talks

    New Year break over

    Search giant Google is restarting talks with the Chinese government in order to clarify the future of its businesses in China. The search giant claimed it could no longer cooperate with Chinese censorship of search results after it was hit by a hacking attack which accessed Gmail accounts belonging to two Chinese political …

    Government 23 Feb 2010, 09:16

  • SanDisk and Seagate shipping big ones

    SD card and SATA hard drive

    SanDisk and Seagate are shipping their largest ever storage SD cards and SATA drives respectively. Tomorrow they'll ship even larger ones. SanDisk can deliver a 64GB Ultra SDXC memory card, SDXC being the successor to the SDHC card format. You can put more than a day's worth of high-def video on the card, at 9Mbits/s speed, …

    Storage 23 Feb 2010, 09:20

  • Apple strips top shelf, leaves corporate smut in place

    It ain't dirty if it's big business

    Apple has had a busy night pulling minor publishers' naughty applications from the iTunes store, leaving porn as the preserve of big business only. It's been six months since Apple started letting scantily-clad women into the iTunes store, and apparently females around the world are up in arms against girls performing …

    Mobile 23 Feb 2010, 10:05

  • WALL-E spaceliner smart hoverchairs debut in Japan

    Humanity's future as morbidly obese drones is assured

    Japanese robot boffins - that is, human roboticists - have created a smart air-cushion hoverchair in remarkable WALL-E fashion. The chair's makers are touting it initially for use by the elderly, rather than the intergalactically indolent. CNET reports that the chair, developed by the Osaka Robot Lab, features a sportscar- …

    Science 23 Feb 2010, 10:14

  • Assessing your server virtualisation needs

    Lab Is your IT environment ready?

    One of the appealing things about server virtualisation is that the “table stakes” are quite low. To virtualise a server, it really is just a case of configure the server, install the appropriate software, log in and off you go – or at least, it was last time I tried. From there it is possible to create VMs with relative ease, …

    Virtualisation Lab 23 Feb 2010, 10:25

  • Car thieves making clean getaway with GPS jammers

    Pedal to the signal meddle

    Car thief gangs have begun using imported GPS jammers to allow them to escape tracking technology. Illicit kit imported into Europe from China operates on the same frequency as GPS satellites to drown out timing signals and confound in-car devices. Because of this in-vehicle systems are unable to either determine their …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 10:38

  • Logitech claims 'first' three-year wireless keyboard battery life

    Type for yonks

    Logitech will release a wireless keyboard and mouse combo it claims will operate for three years before its batteries need changing. Logitech's Wireless Desktop MK710: three-year battery life The Wireless Desktop MK710 achieves this "industry first" by using proprietary wireless technology. Logitech said that while both …

    Hardware 23 Feb 2010, 10:38

  • US must redesign killer hot dogs

    Will no one think of the choking children?

    The American Academy of Pediatrics is determined to tackle a major threat to the wellbeing of US kiddies: killer hot dogs which present a clear and present choking hazard. According to a report (summary here) in the academy's journal Pediatrics, choking is "a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children, especially …

    Science 23 Feb 2010, 10:47

  • Acer cautious over e-book reader roll-out

    Not sure there's enough money in it

    Acer has put its plan to develop an e-book reader on hold while it watches how the market develops, a senior executive has said. Speaking in Taipei yesterday, Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang said his company is not yet ready to launch an e-book reader. But it has the hardware standing by, just in case, he said, the Taipei Times …

    Hardware 23 Feb 2010, 10:56

  • Brocade drops the Ethernet ball

    Record quarterly results, but...

    Ethernet and storage networking supplier Brocade has dropped the Ethernet ball while recording record quarterly results. For its first fiscal 2010 quarter ended January 30, revenues increased 25 per cent year-over-year to $539.5m and Brocade made a net profit of $51.1m, greatly up on the year-ago quarter's loss of $23.9m. All …

    Data Networking 23 Feb 2010, 11:00

  • Nexus One in trigger-happy 999-dialling bother

    Google handset has hysterics after update

    Google's Nexus One handset is dialling 999 when the user tries to pick up voicemail or call a freephone number, thanks to an over-enthusiastic update. The update, which was put out at the end of January, is supposed to recognise any number that might be an emergency call and connect it to the local services. But the numbers …

    Mobile 23 Feb 2010, 11:01

  • MPs bash broadband tax

    Rural subsidies 'unfair' and 'regressive'

    MPs have branded the proposed 50p per month "broadband tax" unfair, arguing the government should allow market forces to decide who gets faster broadband. The levy, due to be imposed on every landline telephone account, is intended to raise £175m per year to subsidise the rollout of next generation internet access to sparsely …

    Broadband 23 Feb 2010, 11:11

  • Polygamist Microsoft picks Amazon as latest Linux wife

    Online retailer empties tills in Redmond pockets

    Amazon has agreed to a cross-licence patent deal with Microsoft over the online retail giant's use of technology in its Kindle e-reader product and Linux-based servers. The financial tie-up, terms of which have been kept secret, is the latest in a series of agreements Microsoft has struck with vendors that use Linux in their …

    Applications 23 Feb 2010, 11:40

  • Wired defines the storage 'PornYear'

    0.94 petabytes of HD smut

    Wired has thrown down the gauntlet to El Reg's Standards Soviet by defining the storage "PornYear" - equivalent to 0.94 petabytes. Yes indeed, forget Jubs, Linguine, and the theoretical maximum velocity of a sheep in a vacuum - the future will be measured by the number of millions of hours of HD vid smut you can theoretically …

    Bootnotes 23 Feb 2010, 11:49

  • Administrators head for titsup training company

    Future grim for Advent students left in limbo

    Advent Computer Training, which ceased trading in January, has appointed two administrators from Brummie accountants PKF. Ian Gould and Brian Hamblin, partners at PKF, will run the Hagley-based business while they look for a buyer. Advent Computer Training and Access 2 Careers employed 250 people and had annual turnover of £ …

    The Channel 23 Feb 2010, 11:54

  • Vodafone Ireland admits pocketing dormant PAYG cash

    But hey, everybody's doing it

    Vodafone Ireland has copped some flak for admitting plans to pocket credit left in dormant accounts, though it turns out that everyone else is already doing just that. The change comes in Vodafone Ireland's terms and conditions, and the Irish Independent has quotes from various bodies saying it's "completely unacceptable", …

    Mobile 23 Feb 2010, 12:16

  • Chimps don't like short measures: Official

    Barmen beware a 'folk understanding of the physics of liquids'

    Barmen should be warned that chimps have demonstrated a "folk understanding of the physics of liquids" which enables them to tell the difference between a full pint and a short measure. According to research by psychologist Dr Michael Beran of Georgia State University, the animals can distinguish "continuous quantities" of …

    Science 23 Feb 2010, 12:47

  • TV sales bounce back

    LCD the technology of choice

    World+Dog bought 211m tellies during 2009, two per cent more than the number shipped in 2008 despite an eight per cent decline in the average price. The vast majority of them were LCDs. In Q4 2009 alone, some 50.73m LCD TVs shipped worldwide, compared to 12.31m CRTs and 4.72m plasma sets, market watcher DisplaySearch said this …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 12:52

  • iPad and smartphone rootkits demo'd by boffins

    Cracking into the ultimate spy device - in your pocket

    Computing boffins say they have demonstrated rootkits which can be used to turn your smartphone or "upcoming tablet computer" into a remotely-activated bugging or tracking system. “Smart phones are essentially becoming regular computers,” says Vinod Ganapathy, computing prof at Rutgers uni in New Jersey. “They run the same …

    Broadband 23 Feb 2010, 12:53

  • Council backs down on CRB checking grown-up lecturers

    Lecturers? Lecherous? Sounds the same, ban them all

    Caerphilly County Borough Council has today backed down from its demands that performers and authors be CRB-checked before getting on stage in front of a grown-up audience. The climbdown after a phone call from El Reg asking exactly how much protection an audience of grownups interested in Medieval murder mysteries really …

    Government 23 Feb 2010, 13:23

  • Mandybill petition puts hacks in a spin

    Fantasies of flip-flop on filesharers

    A rash of reports fantasise today that the government has "dumped" or "abandoned" plans to boot the most persistent illegal filesharers off the internet. The source of the reports is a sentence in a lengthy response to a petition on the Downing Street website, which reads: "We will not terminate the accounts of infringers - it …

    Broadband 23 Feb 2010, 13:32

  • Dell's order status website wobbles at knees

    Updated 'Your information does not match, please try again'

    Dell customers hoping to check when their newly-purchased computer will be shipped are complaining about errors on the vendor's order status website. Over the past week some Dell customers have struggled to access details about when their kit would be delivered by the company. "I placed an order last Friday (22nd Feb) and, …

    Small Biz 23 Feb 2010, 13:44

  • FTC warns 100 organisations over leaked P2P data

    Customer and biz data turning up on Torrents

    More than 100 organisations guilty of allowing private data to leak on P2P networks have received warning letters from US consumer watchdog the Federal Trade Commission. The leaked data – including customer and employee personal information – was left open to download after workers in the affected organisations decided to …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 13:46

  • Apple iPhone tops 2009 smartphone sales

    The advantage of a one-product range

    The iPhone was almost certainly 2009's top-selling smartphone after racking up world shipments of 24.89m units. The figure comes from market watcher Gartner, but the conclusion is ours. Gartner revealed the figure today as the iPhone OS' share of the world smartphone market. To put the number into context, Research in Motion …

    Phones 23 Feb 2010, 13:47

  • ARM strengthens low power hand, targets smart grid

    Extends reach with new microcontroller

    As Intel moves into its heartland territory in smartphones, processor firm ARM is extending its reach in turn. With Intel's efforts to reduce power consumption dramatically in Atom as yet unproven, ARM hangs on to its power advantage, and is moving more aggressively into embedded wireless and the 'internet of things'. A future …

    Hardware 23 Feb 2010, 14:24

  • Pope pooh-poohs airport perv-scanners

    Slams security sop as sinful. Sort of

    The Pope has come out against airport scanners - or maybe he hasn’t, but those operating the scanners may be sinning all the same. Yesterday’s newspapers were full of reports that, in granting an audience to representatives of ENAC (Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile Italiana) and ENAV (Ente Nazionale per l’Assistenza al …

    Law 23 Feb 2010, 14:27

  • The Myth of Three Strikes

    Mandybill How lobbyists and the press invented the great disconnection scare

    It's taken a national newspaper 18 months to report what two major British industries and several million Reg readers already knew: there won't be any permanent disconnections for file sharers. The decision was taken two years ago, we first reported, as a consensus was thrashed out. Two factors influenced the thinking. The …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 14:28

  • iPhone: The OS with big aspirations

    And big opportunities for Cupertino lock-in

    Apple is advertising for an Engineering Manager to take the iPhone OS onto new platforms and new hardware, extending the OS, and the Cupertino control that goes with it. With the iPad not yet out of the door, Apple is already looking at ways to extend the iPhone platform onto other hardware, as the advertisement spotted by …

    Hardware 23 Feb 2010, 15:05

  • DIY music blow: Sellaband goes titsup

    It takes an absence of millions to hold us back

    Last week the fabulously wealthy Luke Johnson - former head of Channel 4 and the financier behind Pizza Express and owner of the Giraffe restaurants - told musicians to get on their bikes and bypass the "corporates". They could do everything DIY-style, he wrote in his Financial Times column. Well, one outfit dedicated to doing …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 15:44

  • Citizens rail against government data sharing

    Expect government to respond around May or June

    A new poll shows that Britons are becoming increasingly concerned about the type of personal information held by the government. Just under two thirds of respondents said they are against the government centralising information about citizens so it can be shared between different government departments. The 'State of the …

    Government 23 Feb 2010, 16:32

  • Plan for top-level pornography domain gets reprieve

    ICANN to reconsider .xxx denial

    A plan to create a specific area of the Internet for pornography has been given a reprieve by a distinguished panel of judges. The panelists - who included a former International Court of Justice judge - told Internet overseeing body ICANN in a majority decision that it was wrong to reject an application for the top-level …

    Networks 23 Feb 2010, 17:43

  • Intel and friends in $3.5bn tech stimulation

    Self-proclaimed heroes of the IT people

    At a speech delivered at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, this morning, Intel's president and chief executive officer Paul Otellini said that the chip maker was spearheading a $3.5bn investment by itself and venture and established tech companies to cultivate new tech companies and thereby create jobs. Otellini's …

    Hardware 23 Feb 2010, 18:11

  • Street View dismisses German privacy fears

    Will launch by end of year, Google insists

    Google has dismissed German privacy fears over Street View, saying it will launch the service in the country by the end of the year, AFP reports. Officials in Germany - described as "especially sensitive to the issue due to the abuse of privacy by the Nazis and Communists in the past" - have expressed concerns "that thieves …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 18:13

  • Payment card skimmer secretly planted in gas station pump

    More than $11,000 vaporized

    Criminals racked up more than $11,000 in fraudulent payment card charges using a skimming device planted in a Utah-based gas station pump, according to reports. The device was concealed so well that employees and users of the gas pump didn't spot anything amiss. When customers paid for purchases using credit or debit cards, …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 18:38

  • YouTube's IE6 support dies on March 13

    Google 'old browser' snub rolls on

    Google will remove IE6-support from YouTube on March 13, according to a web post from the company. In a post to the YouTube help pages, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory indicates that when visiting YouTube, netizens using an "old web browser" are now seeing an interstitial warning that they will soon have to upgrade if they …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 20:16

  • 60 million Americans don't use the interwebs

    Online fear, loathing, and not giving a damn

    A new study from the US Federal Communications Commission says that 93 million Americans don't have broadband internet access at home. Most non-adopters cite "affordability and lack of digital skills" as the reasons for not steering themselves into the fast lane of the information superhighway, but many fear or are disgusted …

    Networks 23 Feb 2010, 20:28

  • Intel hit by 'sophisticated' hack last month

    Et tu, Chipzilla?

    Intel says it was hit by a "sophisticated incident" in January in which hackers attempted to breach its digital defenses, making it the latest US company to admit it is being targeted by online miscreants. The world's biggest chipmaker made the acknowledgment in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission under …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 20:40

  • Gear6 throws self at Memcached Achilles heel

    Always-on for everyone

    No matter how much people talk about constantly available cloud services, there's always that time when you want to upload something to YouTube and the site's unavailable due to "planned site maintenance." And just don't mention Twitter's Fail Whale. YouTube and Twitter are among two of the biggest users of Memcached, the open …

    Servers 23 Feb 2010, 20:52

  • Adobe squishes code execution bug in download manager

    That was quick

    Adobe Systems on Tuesday patched a critical vulnerability that could be exploited to remotely install malicious files on end-user PCs when they install or upgrade Reader and Flash applications. When combined with a flaw on Adobe's website, the bug in the Adobe Download Manager made it possible for attackers to install malware …

    Security 23 Feb 2010, 21:12

  • Wal-Mart buys internet TV biz

    Who do you Vudu?

    Worldwide retail giant Wal-Mart is buying its way into the rapidly expanding sphere of on-demand, internet-based television. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based destroyer of America's small-town shopping districts has forged a "definitive agreement" to acquire Vudu, the Silicon Valley provider of IPTV hardware and services. In …

    Media 23 Feb 2010, 23:09

  • Windows gets reserved seating on Amazon cloud

    And beta treatment on Rackspace

    Following the official opening of Microsoft's Azure "cloud" earlier this month, conspicuous competitors Amazon and Rackspace are hoping to woo developers onto their own sky high services with an array of new tools and discounts. Yesterday, Amazon introduced two additions to its so-called infrastructure cloud, EC2, an online …

    Developer 23 Feb 2010, 23:13

  • RHEL 5.5 - extra lube for your KVMs

    Review CentOS for grown ups

    Red Hat's Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 5.5 has reached the beta stage with downloads available for those with a subscription to the Red Hat Network. Typically, most news involving Red Hat's familiar, free Linux distro Fedora comes from the client software - such as GNOME updates and other desktop tools. But with the new …

    Operating Systems 23 Feb 2010, 23:41