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3rd March 2010 Archive

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  • Google: 'no timetable' on China talks

    We will stop censoring when we stop

    Google has reiterated that it's no longer willing to censor search results in China. But as it continues to censor search results in China, it's not quite sure when this will actually stop. In mid-January, as it told the world that alleged Chinese hackers had pilfered unspecified intellectual property from the company, Google …

    Security 3 Mar 01:02

  • Hedge fund offers $1bn for Novell

    Private parts

    Well, here's another potential acquisition that might slip through IBM's hands. New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates sent a letter to the board of directors of Novell today after the market closed, offering the company $5.75 per share to take the company private. As Wall Street closed on Tuesday, Novell's shares ended …

    Software 3 Mar 03:11

  • Apple schemes mobile movie streams

    As Netflix mulls iPhone app

    Apple executives are shopping around the idea of enabling iTunes users to back up movies, music, and television on the company's servers and to access them from any internet-connected device. Movie studio representatives have reportedly been approached by Apple over creating a possible free streaming service for iTunes, Cnet …

    Music and Media 3 Mar 03:45

  • Google 'personalizes' one in five searches

    Eye on your history, your location, your friends

    Google "personalizes" as much as 20 per cent of your web searches, according to Mountain View software engineer Bryan Horling. Speaking this afternoon at the search-obsessed SMX West conference in Santa Clara, Horling - a developer with Google's personalized search team - said that up to one in five searches are tailored to …

    Music and Media 3 Mar 06:59

  • Cray to super engineer Microsoft clouds

    Azure turns to green

    Supercomputer maker Cray has said it's going to be a thin couple of quarters until it begins shipping new "Baker" systems in Q3. But the company's Custom Engineering group, which does bespoke design work on behalf of clients, is hoping to fill in some of that gap. A deal announced today between cloud computing wannabe Microsoft …

    HPC 3 Mar 07:02

  • Force10 Networks files for IPO

    10 Gigabit yields 143.8 megabucks

    Cisco Systems doesn't own the networking market. It just thinks it does. In reality, Cisco's shareholders have a large piece of the networking racket, but there is plenty of room left over for other players to get at the trough. And today, Force10 Networks - one of the up-and-coming 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking providers that …

    Data Networking 3 Mar 07:02

  • Samsung HMX-U10

    Review Compact HD camcorder

    The success of Flip’s pocket camcorders has seen a fair few manufacturers scrambling to grab a share of this potentially lucrative market. Many of us, it seems, quite like the idea of owning a product that lies somewhere between a cameraphone and a camcorder. Samsung’s HMX-U10 is for the person who wants a highly portable …

    reghardware 3 Mar 08:02

  • IT jobs jump shows hope for UK economy

    Redundancy fears remain

    UK workers still fear losing their jobs even though survey data is starting to show an improvement in both permanent and temporary positions. KPMG's February jobs survey found the fastest increase in permanent positions since July 2007. Around 43 per cent of companies said they were increasing permanent jobs. And temporary …

    Small Biz 3 Mar 08:02

  • Oracle/Sun ditches HDS

    Merger fallout begins

    Oracle/Sun will no longer resell Hitachi Data Systems' high-end USP array product, the 9990V and 9980V systems. The writing had potentially been on the wall since Oracle acquired Sun and spoke about storage products it valued, like the 7000 product, and left the 9900s out of the spotlight. HDS' USP-V line is OEM'd by HP from …

    Channel Register 3 Mar 08:35

  • Google shakes empty YouTube piggy bank

    Square eyes squared Hopes to convince rights holders Content ID is king

    Google is still searching under the sofa for a remote control that might, one day, help the company make money out of its unprofitable YouTube video sharing site. In the meantime, the ad broker is hoping to convince more copyright holders to sign up to its service. At the moment YouTube only has about 1,000 media makers on its …

    Applications 3 Mar 09:02

  • Intel: Just 3,000 employees run Windows 7

    Cebit And you should bin 4 year old PCs

    Intel's CIO showed why it might take a while for Microsoft to make much of a dent in the XP-installed base yesterday as she urged the world to scrap any kit more than four years old. Diane Bryant came on stage at Intel's Cebit kickoff press conference in the wake of a video that described Intel as "sponsors of the future" and …

    IT Director 3 Mar 09:21

  • Typing merely by thinking - plugless brainjack kit invented

    Socket in your head? Touchscreen? Get with it, grandad

    Boffins in America say they have developed a portable, direct brain-to-computer interface - and there's good news for all you cyberpunks out there, as it requires no dangerous, risky plug into your skull. The new tech, according to its developers, requires nothing more than ordinary electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes …

    Biology 3 Mar 10:11

  • Swedish pothead reports LSD-laced hash

    Girlfriend turned into a dolphin, cops told

    A Swedish pothead whose girlfriend turned into a dophin after he toked on a particularly explosive spliff asked cops to test his hash for traces of LSD, The Local reports. The concerned 26-year-old from Eslöv, northeast of Malmö, considered the matter so serious that he ignored the fact that marijuana is illegal in Sweden and …

    Bootnotes 3 Mar 10:40

  • German court rejects police data snooping store

    Leaves Euro spooks in limbo

    Germany's High Court has told police and secret services that they must stop storing email and telephone data and delete information already collected. The storage of six months' worth of German comms data for police and anti-terrorism purposes was required by a European Union directive. Opponents of the snooping measure …

    Policing 3 Mar 10:47

  • Global warming may be normal at this point in glacial cycle

    Happened last time (followed by Glacier UK), say profs

    German and Russian scientists say that it is normal for an interglacial period like the one just ending to finish with one or more brief - in geological terms - spells of warming before the glaciers return. According to boffins based at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ) and at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in …

    Environment 3 Mar 10:59

  • Internet Explorer 8 still not mingling well with 2,000 highly-visited sites

    Standards aren't what they used to be

    Microsoft confessed yesterday that over 2,000 well-known websites still remained incompatible with Internet Explorer 8. The software vendor said that the number had dropped by about 1,000 sites compared with figures Microsoft spat out a year ago when more than 3,000 web portals needed “Compatibility View” support to show up on …

    Applications 3 Mar 11:17

  • Orange backs Intel-Nokia Linux drive

    New supporter for Meego

    Orange has given its thumbs-up to the Intel-Nokia Linux venture Meego, the OS formerly known as Maemo and Moblin. The mobile phone network essentially said it would develop its applications, marketed under the Signature brand, to run on the operating system, allowing it to offer customer user experiences on anything from …

    reghardware 3 Mar 11:21

  • Brass necked suspect swallows USB evidence

    Police get to bottom of bank scammer

    A suspected cybercrook who swallowed a USB drive in an apparent bid to destroy evidence has been charged with obstruction. Florin Necula, from New York, ate a Kingston flash drive thought to contain mag strip dumps from credit cards shortly after his arrest outside a bank in Queens on 21 January. He gobbled the USB drive while …

    Crime 3 Mar 11:37

  • Naomi Campbell bitchslaps NY limo driver

    WSA Battling Streatham clotheshorse in alleged punch-and-run

    Battling Streatham clotheshorse Naomi Campbell came out of pugilistic retirement yesterday to allegedly punch a New York limo driver, AP reports. The unnamed 27-year-old victim was booked to whisk Ms Campbell from a Manhattan hotel to Astoria Studios in Queens. However, he later told police the supermodel launched an assault …

    Bootnotes 3 Mar 11:38

  • EOS 5D Mk II DLSR to be more cinema friendly

    Canon preps firmware update

    Canon will soon post new firmware for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR - reviewed here. The update will bring 24f/s and 25f/s HD video recording to the camera. The EOS 5D can shoot video at 1080p, and the introduction of 24f/s recording - 23.97f/s, to be precise - will allow it to shoot footage at the same framerate cinema …

    reghardware 3 Mar 11:50

  • German geeks invade Australia

    Cebit Still space for Brit techies, says Aussie senator

    Germany's top techie research house the Fraunhofer institute has turned its remorseless gaze onto Australia for one of its first joint research projects outside of Europe and the US. The institute, which has been a resource for German industry for over 50 years but is probably most famous for inventing the MP3 format, will …

    Small Biz 3 Mar 11:55

  • Apple turns the flamethrower on Android

    Analysis If you tolerate this your handset will be next

    The details of Apple's patent offensive are now public, and it's clear that while HTC is the target, it's Google's Android that has got Cupertino so annoyed. The patents on which Apple is claiming infringement include obvious things such as the use of a gesture to unlock and rotate the screen based on device orientation, but …

    Mobile 3 Mar 12:03

  • Virgin, 3 tease with Nokia X6 deals

    Music phone offers

    After Nokia's sexy X6 music phone? Both Virgin Media and 3 this week said they will be offering the handset this month. 3 is punting the X6 for free if you sign up for on a £35-a-month two-year contract that includes unlimited internet access, unlimited texts and 750 all-network call minutes. Settle for 500 minutes' all- …

    reghardware 3 Mar 12:07

  • Apple iPad on sale 26 March, says staffer

    Insiders get a sneak peek 16 days beforehand

    Apple will begin selling the iPad - the Wi-Fi only version, mind - on 26 March, two weeks after its starts running ads for the gadget on TV. So claims an unsurprisingly anonymous South California Apple Store manager who coughed up these details to an LA Examiner reporter. The Apple staffer also said the company's retail …

    reghardware 3 Mar 12:23

  • LibDems back copyright takedowns

    Mandybill Last minute amendment spooks ISPs

    Two LibDem peers have tabled an amendment allowing the Courts to grant injunctions against ISPs - blocking off sections of the internet found to host infringing material. It's similar to the DMCA-style proposal punted by the BPI in the new year, which we exclusively revealed. Injunctions are already a legal tool against …

    Law 3 Mar 12:27

  • Overland Storage bags Barrall

    Executive officer, sir

    Overland Storage has appointed Geoff Barrall to an executive officer's position according to a financial filing. A Form D SEC document, referring to a "Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities" was filed on 2 March. It mentions several existing board directors and executive officers, such as CEO Eric Kelly, and includes Geoff …

    Storage 3 Mar 12:29

  • David Atherton: 'I don't miss Dabs'

    Interview Part 1 Missed it the first time? Here it is again

    This is part one of a two-part interview with Dabs founder and channel legend David Atherton, which we ran earlier this year. We enjoyed it so much, we thought we'd highlight it again, in case anyone missed it first time round. Part two is here. “I logged on to my bank account on about 3 May 2006, and found there was £24m in it …

    Channel Register 3 Mar 12:56

  • WD shipping consumer SSDs

    Looking for silicon edge

    Western Digital has started shipping consumer-focused solid-state drives (SSDs). The SiliconEdge Blue family is a range of 2.5-inch form factor SSDs storing up to 256GB of data, and having a 3Gbit/s SATA interface. The read speed is up to 250MB/sec and the write speed up to 170MB/sec. WD says the products have "maximum …

    reghardware 3 Mar 13:02

  • Forget SETI, this is how you find aliens: Hefty prof speaks

    The truth is out there. Or maybe in here, actually

    A top alien-hunting boffin has said that current efforts seeking extraterrestrial intelligent life are unlikely ever to work - not because there couldn't be any aliens out there, but because the methods themselves are wrong. He proposes several radical new means of finding out whether we really are alone in the universe. …

    Space 3 Mar 13:11

  • Microsoft claims 90m sales of Windows 7

    'Fastest selling OS in history', apparently

    Microsoft claimed yesterday that it had sold 90 million copies of Windows 7 since it hit manufacturers in July 2009. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley-sponsored tech, media and telecoms conference on Tuesday, Microsoft's CFO Peter Klein said the vendor had seen bumper sales of its current operating system to date. Windows 7 …

    Financial News 3 Mar 13:14

  • Street View spymobiles invade CeBIT

    CeBIT Google woos Germans with touchy-feely paintjob

    As part of Google's hearts-and-minds campaign to allay German fears that it is intent on adding their country to Mountain View's lebensraum, the company has decided to entertain CeBIT visitors with some touchy-feely Street View spymobiles: You'll note the Opels are somewhat less Orwellian than they normally are when they're …

    Bootnotes 3 Mar 14:26

  • Yahoo! chief! produces! magician's! hat! on! 15th! birthday!

    Still praying for rabbits and sparkly dust in Apple-wannabe-comeback

    Yahoo! boss Carol Bartz popped a few champagne corks with reporters yesterday to celebrate the struggling web firm’s 15th birthday, and at the same time admitted that a turnaround could take years. Bartz, who has been at Yahoo! for nearly 14 months, has a four-year contract with the company. It expires in 2013 by which time …

    IT Director 3 Mar 15:02

  • Rescuing Palm?

    Verizon blamed for wonderphone's flop

    You know you're in trouble when your revenue is $1bn less than you'd expected for the year. But a few companies might envy being in Palm's position. It has an excellent product it can't sell, and in webOS an asset that wealthy rivals - Nokia, Samsung or Microsoft - would pick up in a snap. Palm itself blamed a lacklustre …

    Mobile 3 Mar 15:14

  • Novell mulls hedge fund takeover

    Send in the bankers and lawyers

    Commercial Linux distro and systems software maker Novell said last night, after it had received a takeover deal from a New York hedge fund named Elliott Associates to take Novell private, that it would put out a statement about the proposal. It took nearly four hours to come up with the statement, and the wonder is why. Here' …

    Operating Systems 3 Mar 15:28

  • How FBI, police busted massive botnet

    Analysis 12m zombie machines run by 3 admins

    More details have emerged about a cybercrime investigation that led to the takedown of a botnet containing 12m zombie PCs and the arrest of three alleged kingpins who built and ran it. As previously reported, the Mariposa botnet was principally geared towards stealing online login credentials for banks, email services and the …

    Malware 3 Mar 15:56

  • Acer predicts end of cheap PC era

    Consumers get bitten in the ASP

    PC buyers, especially small businesses, should get used to paying more for their kit, after Acer predicted that ASPs would rise this year, for practically the first time in PC industry history. Walter Deppeler, senior corp vice president of the Taiwanese PC giant, said that the company saw a revival in the PC business in the …

    Small Biz 3 Mar 16:07

  • MS confirms 'F1 to pwn' IE bug

    Looking for help can be dangerous

    Microsoft has confirmed that an unpatched Internet Explorer vulnerability makes it potentially dangerous to press F1 if you are running earlier versions of Windows. A security bug in the VBScript technology bundled with Internet Explorer means that it might be possible to create a web site that displays a specially crafted …

    Malware 3 Mar 16:24

  • VMware to pony up $400m for buybacks

    EMC to maintain 80% stake

    In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, virtualization juggernaut VMware said its board of directors had authorized a stock repurchase plan to allow the company to go out on Wall Street and buy back up to $400m in its class A shares between now and the end of 2011. VMware says in an 8K filing that the share …

    Virtualization 3 Mar 16:35

  • Hero update blocks Marketplace

    HTC won't fix, blames Orange

    The latest update to Orange's Hero handset, manufactured by HTC, is blocking access to the Android marketplace again. An update to the handset released last month causes some paid applications to vanish from the Android marketplace. HTC is not interested in fixing the problem, which it blames squarely on Orange: "HTC won't …

    Mobile 3 Mar 16:46

  • Russian Olympic boss walks plank

    Threat of Gulag evidently effective

    Russia's Olympic Committee boss has walked the plank, shortly after president Dmitry Medvedev suggested that a terrible fate awaited those who refused to resign over the country's dismal Vancouver performance. According to Russia news agencies, Leonid Tyagachyov swiftly submitted a letter of resignation in response to Medvedev …

    Odds and Sods 3 Mar 19:15

  • Google Research head dubs holy PageRank 'over-hyped'

    Norvig mum on 'Caffeine' search shot

    Google research head Peter Norvig says that the search giant's hallowed PageRank link-analysis algorithm is overrated. And always has been. "One thing that I think is still over-hyped is PageRank," Norvig said this morning during a question and answer keynote at the search-obsessed SMX West conference in Santa Clara, …

    Music and Media 3 Mar 19:36

  • DARPA asks you to cram petaflops super into single rack

    To dream the ExtremeScale dream

    The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the research and development arm of the US military - has issued a challenge to nerds, geeks, techies, and boffins to bid on how they would build a petaflops-scale system of nearly unimaginable energy efficiency and compactness. Oh, and the prospective system also needs to be …

    HPC 3 Mar 19:36

  • Canonical betas Ubuntu music store

    Windows Media downloads 'not recommended'

    Canonical is privately beta testing a DRM-free Ubuntu music store, slated to debut with the Lucid Lynx distro in late April. According to an Ubuntu wiki FAQ, the Ubuntu One Music Store will offer DRM-free and watermark-free MP3s provided by the London-based online music outfit 7digital. The store will integrate with the …

    Software 3 Mar 20:43

  • Dell flogs its 'zero client'

    PC-over-IP rolls into FX100 boxes

    Dell has unveiled its first "zero client" device for enterprise customers who think traditional thin clients are fatty, fatty 2x4s. The FX100 Zero Client has no x86 CPU, no hard disk drive, and no image to manage. Instead, it simply acts as a terminal to a virtual environment running on a remote server. The system was …

    Hardware 3 Mar 21:02

  • IBM closer to chips with frickin' laser beams

    Debuts teeny-tiny optical detector

    IBM scientists say they're another step closer to creating computer chips circuits that efficiently use frickin' laser beams rather than copper wires to communicate. On Wednesday, Big Blue's light-wrangling boffins unveiled what's called an avalanche photodetector capable of receiving optical information pulses at 40Gbps. The …

    Physics 3 Mar 23:02