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10th March 2010 Archive

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  • Floating IT lab mimics multi-tiered networks

    Is it real? Or is it Skytap?

    Skytap - the Jeff Bezos-backed startup that lets you mimic internal IT infrastructure in the so-called cloud - has introduced a new set of automation tools designed to facilitate the creation of complex network topologies on its floating interwebs service. With the new tools, the company says, Skytap users can automate the …

    Servers 10 Mar 2010, 01:38

  • Google opens Google Apps app store

    One stop Google bolt-on shop

    The Mountain View Chocolate Factory has unveiled an online marketplace for third-party applications that hook into its Google Apps suite of web-based businessware. In February The Wall Street Journal revealed that such an app store was on the way, and on Tuesday evening at a developer event broadcast over the web the web giant …

    Applications 10 Mar 2010, 05:57

  • UK pol touts canine chip implants

    Doggies digitized for your protection

    Even if your beloved Westie is spending her declining years curled up by the hearth, Home Secretary Alan Johnson suggests she should be microchipped for the protection of her potential victims, and you should pony up for dog-attack insurance. So goes a proposal that Johnson has floated for consultation in response to what the …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 06:02

  • Tablet maker threatens, then robs Apple

    The non-iPad iPad clone

    The publicity whores at China's Shenzhen Great Loong Brother tablet-PC maker are at it again. First, they raised a worldwild rumpus by floating the prospect of a lawsuit accusing Apple of stealing the design of their tubby P88 slate for the iPad. Now they've blatantly ripped off the look and feel of Mac OS X, pasted it onto …

    Hardware 10 Mar 2010, 06:02

  • Sepaton in anti-Data Domain pitch

    Dual-node MS2 cluster

    Criticising the pain of single-silo deduplication products, Sepaton has introduced a dual-node clustered product that can be upgraded to its larger ES2 system. The MS2 is described as rack-ready and has from 36 to 192TB of raw capacity, meaning 30 to 160TB of usable capacity. Data ingest can occur at 1,200MB/sec. It comes with …

    Storage 10 Mar 2010, 07:02

  • Suburban woman accused of using net to recruit terrorists

    Feds cuff JihadJane

    A suburban Pennsylvania woman who went by the online alias JihadJane used the internet to recruit Islamic terrorists and to plot the assassination of a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. Colleen R LaRose was charged with conspiracy to provide material …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 07:02

  • Exploring Security in the virtualised world

    Live right now! Practical Matters discussed live

    If virtualisation is creeping across your organisation you’ve presumably ticked some of the security boxes, right? Well, whether you have or not, you may still want to tune in to our webcast at 10am today: Virtualisation and Security: Practical Matters. This particular gem is running live for one hour at 10am, and it’s going …

    Virtualisation Lab 10 Mar 2010, 08:02

  • Google Nexus One

    Review Hard to resist

    The flourishing Android operating system has appeared on phones made by Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and HTC. Now Google has launched its own handset, though it’s actually made by HTC, which has made the bulk of Android handsets so far. Nexus One: hardware by HTC, software by Google The thing about Android is that …

    Phones 10 Mar 2010, 08:02

  • Google goes cycling

    Turn left here and jump that red light

    Google is offering a cycling option for users of its map service. If you ask Google for directions in some US cities from today you can choose "bicycling" as an option, alongside "by car", "walking" or "by public transport". The company said it had been the most requested feature since the map site launched. The League of …

    Bootnotes 10 Mar 2010, 09:11

  • Max Clifford takes £1m to drop hack probe

    Kiss and don't tell

    Celebrity publicist Max Clifford has agreed to accept a £1m plus payoff in exchange for dropping phone hacking allegations against the News of the World. Clifford's settlement over allegations that the paper intercepted his voicemail messages, means the case will not proceed to court, and that News of the World publisher News …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 09:29

  • Brown promises Budget in a fortnight

    Warns of more bumps ahead

    Gordon Brown is set to announce the Budget will happen at the end of the month, increasing the likelihood that the election will be on 6 May. The Budget will be presented to Parliament on 24 March. Brown is due to speak at Reuters HQ later today. In quotes given to news agencies he will say: "We are at a turning point, a …

    Government 10 Mar 2010, 09:55

  • NY chef offers mam cheese canapes

    Wife is 100% free range and foie gras fed

    A New York chef is offering samples of cheese made from his wife's breast milk with the promise that it's "100 per cent organic, free range and foie gras fed". Lori Mason, wife of Klee Brasserie host Daniel Angerer, is now encouraging her husband to use her mam product to make gelato. But NYC health officials are trying to …

    Bootnotes 10 Mar 2010, 10:28

  • Sharp preps Freeview HD set-top kit

    Connect-your-own-storage DVR too

    Sharp will release the first of two Freeview HD set-top boxes at the end of April. It's also preparing a regular Freeview DVR that uses USB-connected storage to make it a doddle to transfer taped programmes to a PC. The TU-T1UR sports three USB 2.0 ports on its front, into which you can connect Flash drives, SD card adaptors …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 10:34

  • Palm pops out plug-in dev kit

    WebOs goes native

    Palm has released its Plug-in Development Kit, enabling native development for those who find AJAX just can't cut it. The public beta release is aimed at games developers, who might have existing C code they want to port, or find that JavaScript lacks the performance they need. But Palm is keen to emphasise that the PDK will …

    Mobile 10 Mar 2010, 10:50

  • WD targets Win XP users to ease 4KB drive upgrades

    Sector inspector

    Western Digital is to help Windows XP users more easily make the transition to so-called '4K' hard drive technology, the new standard for basic drive formatting. Hard drive makers segment each data-storage platter into small, addressable units called sectors. For years, the sector size was set to 512 bytes - a standard set by …

    Hardware 10 Mar 2010, 11:24

  • Microsoft boffin scoops Turing Award

    Hardware guru wins computing's 'Nobel prize'

    A Microsoft researcher has received the Turing Award in recognition for his pioneering work in personal computing hardware and networking technology development. Chuck Thacker, 67, received the computing industry's equivalent of a Nobel prize on Tuesday for his work on the Alto personal computer and Ethernet networking at …

    Hardware 10 Mar 2010, 11:39

  • BT boss urges fines for filesharing customers

    Mandybill Corporate crusaders for free speech unite

    Ian Livingston, the boss of Britain's biggest ISP BT, is lobbying for the government's proposed technical sanctions against filesharers to be replaced with fines. He said suspending internet access for the most persistent copyright infringement, as envisaged by the Digital Economy Bill, could deny those accused a fair hearing …

    Broadband 10 Mar 2010, 11:44

  • Young people are lazy, think world owes them a living - prof

    Trick-cyclist blasts Googleplex massage parlour

    It's official. Proper actual science* has confirmed that the young Westerners of Generation Y (people now in their 20s) are idle, workshy loafers by comparison to their elders. They are also think that the world owes them a handsome living, having higher expectations of salary and status than their predecessors. "With more and …

    Science 10 Mar 2010, 11:49

  • UK is safer from al-Qaeda 'bastards', says security minister

    Well done chaps, no damage to society at all

    The minister responsible for counter-terrorism has said that despite "some very nasty bastards out there who aim to do us harm", government security initiatives have made the UK safer from attacks in recent years. Lord West, the Parliamentary under-secretary for security and counter-terrorism, made the claim in a speech to …

    Government 10 Mar 2010, 11:53

  • Y2.01K hits Garmin satnav

    Routing like it's 1949

    Garmin's Geko 201 GPS kit can't decide what year it is, flipping between decades every time it's switched on, though it's performing better on days of the week. Thanks to Reg Reader Dazed for the piccy 2010 is proving a complicated year for computers, fouling up debit cards in New Zealand and credit cards in Germany, and …

    Science 10 Mar 2010, 12:01

  • Microsoft whitewashes MSN in latest Web2.0rhea whimsy

    Still not shining Silverlight on UK video player

    Microsoft has taken the beta wraps off its MSN homepage, which the company relaunched in the US in November 2009. Over the next two weeks Microsoft will roll out its Facebook-like facelift to 100 million Stateside users of MSN. The MSN overhaul is the first major makeover to Microsoft's website - home to its free Hotmail …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 12:16

  • Twitter adds filter to cut phishing lines

    Every twt.tl bit helps

    Twitter has tightened up security procedures in order to curtail phishing attacks against users of the micro-blogging service, which have become rampant over recent weeks. Bogus (normally direct) messages have invited users to log into counterfeit Twitter sites, and hand over login credentials in the process. Compromised …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 12:46

  • SpringSource adds springiness to Tomcat server

    Free licenses lure cloud army to VMware

    Open-source Java framework specialist SpringSource has unveiled a new incarnation of its Apache Tomcat-based tc Server, offering application developers and operators additional tools for building, deploying, and monitoring their software on the lightweight runtime platform. SpringSource vice president of product management …

    Developer 10 Mar 2010, 13:02

  • Mozilla Jetpack flies out of laboratory into loving arms of Firefox

    SDK lands with a bump

    Mozilla has promoted its web extensions prototype package - Jetpack - by pushing it upstairs and readying it for production with its Firefox browser. The outfit said yesterday that it had created the first release of a software development kit (SDK) for Jetpack to show off the platform's "foundations and extensibility". …

    Developer 10 Mar 2010, 13:20

  • UK plastic fraud losses fall for first time in 3 years

    Online banking losses up though

    A rise in online banking fraud losses took some of the shine off the overall fall in debit and credit fraud in the UK last year. Official figures from the UK Cards Association, which represents UK credit and debit card providers, published on Wednesday show that fraud on debit and credit cards fell by 28 per cent in 2009 to £ …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 13:21

  • 'Phantom Eye' hydrogen strato-spy drone starts building

    Cruises 12 miles up on pair of Ford car engines

    Global arms'n'aerospace behemoth Boeing says it will now begin work in earnest on its "Phantom Eye" high-altitude hydrogen spy drone, powered by a pair of modified Ford car engines. The unmanned Phantom Eye will, according to Boeing engineers, be able to cruise for as long as four days at a time at altitudes of up to 65,000 …

    Science 10 Mar 2010, 13:26

  • Government spends £11k on ID card 'branding'

    £1m spent on advertising, no public relations

    The government still seems to be shying away from spending too much money advertising its ID card and National ID Register schemes. In a commons answer yesterday ID minister Meg Hillier said that the Identity and Passport Service had spent £1.3m so far buying "buying advertising space to communicate to the business community …

    Government 10 Mar 2010, 13:29

  • Saviour likely for titsup training firm

    Advent students still waiting for a saviour

    Administrators for Advent Computer Training, and its sister school for plumbers, believe they have found buyers for the company. In fact they've found two buyers for the Hagley-based firms and got cooperation from a major creditor. The collapse left many students out of pocket because they had paid up-front for Microsoft …

    The Channel 10 Mar 2010, 13:44

  • Freesat BBC iPlayer beta gets red button access

    Code-only entry ended

    Humax and the BBC have extended their iPlayer offering to all of the manufacturer's Freesat set-top boxes, making the catch-up service available through remotes' red buttons. Both the Foxsat-HD and Foxsat-HDR need to be connected to the internet through a wired link to your broadband router. Once tuned into a BBC channel, …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 14:07

  • Samsung to bundle glasses with 3D TVs

    Tackles hidden cost of 3D TV viewing

    In a bid to become the leading supplier of 3D TVs, Samsung will bundle every one of its 3D tellies and Blu-ray Disc players with two pairs of active-shutter specs and a copy of Monsters vs Aliens, the company announced last night. While many potential buyers won't be too excited by the prospect of a free BD, active-shutter …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 14:34

  • MoJ halves consultancy spending

    Don't need no good advice

    The Ministry of Justice reduced its consultancy spending from £20.7m in 2007-08 to £10.5m in 2008-09, despite the failure of other departments to meet government cost-cutting targets. According to a parliamentary written answer from Lord Bach, consultancy and technology company Accenture suffered from a particularly big fall. …

    The Channel 10 Mar 2010, 15:04

  • Zero* welcome for 200 Welsh TV shows - in Wales

    Nid wyf yn deall gair rydych chi'n dweud

    Almost 200 Welsh language programmes broadcast by S4C last month attracted precisely zero viewers, leaked audience figures show. The figures suggest an incoming Tory government will have the Welsh language channel right next to the BBC on its media working-over list. According to the Western Mail, which obtained leaked BARB …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 15:12

  • Ex-Sun boss punts Apple-Microsoft-world 'tried to sue me' missive

    My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire

    Former Sun Microsystems boss Jonathan Schwartz has claimed that Apple chief Steve Jobs threatened to sue the server and software maker in 2003. The erstwhile Sun CEO said on his 'What I Couldn't Say' blog yesterday that he felt for Google, whose HTC Android partner is currently embroiled in a legal handsets-at-dawn spat with …

    Developer 10 Mar 2010, 15:26

  • Underground mole-satnavs to work off lightning strikes

    'Sferic' zap-sniff tech for future subterranean warriors

    News has emerged of a secret US military programme intended to let troops navigate about inside huge underground enemy tunnel complexes by measuring energy pulses given off by lightning bolts. The project is known as "Sferics-Based Underground Geolocation", or S-BUG, and is focused on building "a mapping and navigation system …

    Science 10 Mar 2010, 15:28

  • Cryptome: PayPal a 'liar, cheat and a thug'

    Account still restricted

    "PayPal is a fucking liar, a cheat and a thug," says Cryptome operator John Young. The eBay-owned payment service closed the Cryptome account last week, with over $5,000 of donations intended for Young in limbo. Last night Anuj Nayar, PayPal's global director of communications, told us by email that Cryptome's account had been …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 16:10

  • Pistol fired on Olympic honour campaign for Turing

    Celebrated cryptographer was accomplished runner

    The campaigner who led a successful effort last year to secure a public apology for the UK government's mistreatment of Alan Turing is calling for recognition of the celebrated cryptographer during the 2012 London Olympics. Turing's work as a code-breaker in Bletchley Park during the war and in establishing the foundations for …

    Bootnotes 10 Mar 2010, 16:13

  • Voltaire brings InfiniBand switch to the masses

    Accelerators speed up cluster work

    InfiniBand and Ethernet switch maker Voltaire this morning rolled out its Grid Director 4200, a midrange 40 Gb/sec InfiniBand switch that shoots the gap between its entry and high-end switches, and that is the product that Voltaire expects companies to buy as they adopt InfiniBand for database clustering and other HPC jobs. …

    Data Networking 10 Mar 2010, 16:24

  • LG 3D TV line to debut in May

    Freeview HD and internet connectivity on board too

    LG will release its 3D TV range in May, the company said today. The line-up will comprise a pair of LED TVs and a Blu-ray Disc player. The tellies are both part of LG's 32mm-thick LX9900 series, part of its micro-bezel Infinia range. Two sizes are planned: 47in and 55in. Both will feature 400Hz frame interpolation technology, …

    Hardware 10 Mar 2010, 17:02

  • Google flips switch on mobile YouTube banner ads

    Phone vid traffic up '160%'

    Google is now serving ads on the mobile incarnation of YouTube. Today, the Mountain View web giant announced that it has officially launched ads on the home, search, and browse pages of its mobile YouTube site (m.youtube.com) in the US and Japan. After running ad tests on the site that date back to at least the summer of 2008 …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 17:55

  • Google boss says something will happen in China 'soon'

    Eight weeks and counting

    Google CEO Eric Schmidt has reiterated that the company is currently in negotiations with the Chinese government over its future in the country - despite the Chinese government's claims to the contrary - and he expects some sort of development "soon". Speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi, the Associated Press reports, Schmidt …

    Media 10 Mar 2010, 19:20

  • Citrix tunes XenApp for Windows Server R2

    App-V virtual embrace

    Citrix has unveiled XenApp 6 after re-architecting the product from the ground up to take full advantage of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 R2. While Citrix Systems is busy mixing and matching its various application, server, and PC virtualization products, XenApp - formerly known as Presentation Server and the software that …

    Virtualization 10 Mar 2010, 19:44

  • Intel's redemos six-core Gulftown

    Gamers watch and wait

    Intel has given developers another peek at its upcoming Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor. Intel's plans for the six-core, 12-thread, 32nm Core i7-980X - formerly code-named Gulftown - were made clear by the venue for the demo: the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC 2010) taking place this week in San Francisco. New …

    Hardware 10 Mar 2010, 20:04

  • Zeus botnets suffer mighty blow after ISP taken offline

    One quarter of C&C channels vanish

    At least a quarter of the command and control servers linked to Zeus-related botnets have suddenly gone quiet, continuing a recent trend of takedowns hitting some of the world's most nefarious cyber operations. The massive drop is the result of actions taken by two Eastern European network providers. On Tuesday, they pulled the …

    Security 10 Mar 2010, 23:23

  • Mozilla open source license set for facelift

    10-year-old shows her age

    Mozilla is updating its open source license after more than 10 years of use. On Wednesday, at a new site dedicated to the license overhaul, the Foundation announced that it's now gathering update suggestions from world+dog and that it hopes to release a completed document by October or November. The Mozilla Public License was …

    Developer 10 Mar 2010, 23:42