18th March 2010 Archive

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Madoff geeks charged for writing book-cooking code

'House 17' and the secret algorithm

A federal grand jury has indicted two computer programmers on fraud and conspiracy charges for developing programs used by Bernard Madoff to cook the books in his billion-dollar ponzi scheme. Jerome O'Hara and George Perez knowingly created the programs that removed or altered key data contained in reports submitted to …

Crime 18 Mar 2010, 00:05
Energizer battery rechargers still haunted by trojan backdoor

Really does keep going and going

"It keeps going and going and going" may be the slogan coined for Energizer batteries, but the same holds true for a nasty trojan backdoor that mysteriously slipped into software used to monitor rechargeable versions of the product. Almost two weeks after a red-faced Energizer admitted its Duo USB battery charger installed a …

Malware 18 Mar 2010, 03:40
Steve Jobs' latest honors: TV, icons, fromage

Cheesehead of the decade

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is no stranger to adulation. Recent honors include Fortune's CEO of the Decade, the Harvard Business Review's world's best-performing CEO, and the Wall Street Journal's Person of the Decade. But a new trio of tributes takes Jobsian worship to new heights. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported …

Odds and Sods 18 Mar 2010, 06:02
Hidden Windows 7 costs worry upgraders

Compatibility downer

Microsoft - if not IT pros - can breath a sigh of relief, as Windows 7 has given businesses a reason for not defecting to competing desktop systems. According to a new study released Wednesday, the number of businesses desperately looking for an alternative to Windows on the desktop has dropped significantly for the first time …

Channel Register 18 Mar 2010, 07:44
Dell Vostro V13

Review A business box to get your pulse racing - surely not?

You know where you stand with business-oriented laptops. They're chunky, dull-looking machines with all the pizazz of a rainy afternoon in Chester. Dell's Vostro range has been a case in point: a collection of low-power, low-charisma laptops likely to appeal only to the most frugal of IT department bean counters. Dell's …

reghardware 18 Mar 2010, 08:02
Police National Database will have audit trail

Tabs to be kept

A code of practice for the forthcoming Police National Database says that an audit trail will be created to tackle abuse. Chief police officers will be responsible for auditing the activity of their own officers and no user should audit their own activities, says the document, presented to Parliament on 17 March 2010 by the …

Policing 18 Mar 2010, 08:02
Do ERP projects ever end?

Workshop Just how much of an ongoing burden are they?

In some organisations, the ERP system represents the biggest single entity within the IT environment. This is particularly the case in industries such as manufacturing, distribution and others that are heavily manpower- or goods-centric. Even if ERP in itself doesn’t account for a lot of the infrastructure per se, it is one of …

ERP 18 Mar 2010, 08:32
Dealing with the virtual hype

Lab Teasing the education from the evangelism

There are few if any technologies that have garnered as much industry coverage as virtualisation has enjoyed over the last few years. Okay, maybe ‘Cloud Computing’ has too, but that’s more vendor talk than action right now. As far as real-world activity goes, virtualisation is a hotbed of activity and a magnet for vendors to …

Virtualisation Lab 18 Mar 2010, 09:02
Signal Lake rescues InPhase

Holographic light at end of the tunnel

Collapsed holographic storage maker InPhase is being resuscitated. Venture Capital firm Signal Lake has bought most of the assets of InPhase, which went belly-up earlier this year. Signal Lake was a founding investor in InPhase and has stuck with the firm through its troubles as it tried and failed to bring its Tapestry …

Storage 18 Mar 2010, 09:29
'Google TV' plants Chrome on Android set-top

Sony and Intel join plan to rule world with ads

Google has joined forces with Intel and Sony to build a television set-top box based on its Android mobile operating system and Chrome web browser. The New York Times reports that this "Google TV" contraption - in development for several months - is designed to make it easier for television watchers to use web applications on …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2010, 09:36
Yahoo! buys! fantasy! sports! site!

Still searching for social success

Yahoo! is making another attempt to strengthen its weak social networking products by buying Citizen Sports. The site offers various fantasy leagues and ways for fans to link the site's applications to their social network profiles. Yahoo! said it would be integrating its sports content into Citizen Sports. Citizen Sports …

Financial News 18 Mar 2010, 09:51
Making life easier for the road warrior

Workshop Delivering stability for the movers

In the past decade we have witnessed the use of laptops in organisations reaching similar levels to those of desktops. All the signs are that the penetration of such machines will soon exceed that of their immobile siblings. Today, they are more than status symbols. They are established as essential business devices, without …

Desktop Management 18 Mar 2010, 09:58
'Death knell' for Eye-o-Sauron™ US border stare-towers

~~Hobbit~~ Huddled-mass detectors cop an axeing

Plans to erect a chain of tall towers topped by all-seeing eyes along the US southern border - for the purpose of detecting inbound huddled masses, rather than troublesome hobbits - have perhaps been torpedoed at last, according to reports. Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano announced on Tuesday that $50m of economic …

Government 18 Mar 2010, 10:01
Sex.com auction delayed

Lawyers step in to block bargain sale

The auction of the controversial domain name sex.com has been delayed, after some of its owner's creditors stepped in with a bankruptcy claim. The foreclosure sale had been due to go ahead in New York today, with a simultaneous online auction at ProxiBid.com, but the auction is now listed as “postponed”. The law firm of …

Financial News 18 Mar 2010, 10:04
Amazon posts Kindle for Mac

Buy and read e-books in OS X

Amazon has rolled out the Mac version of its Kindle-on-a-computer application, and it's open to e-book buyers in the UK. Like the real Kindle - reviewed here - the Kindle application allows you to buy and download e-books from Amazon's online bookshop. Some 325,000 titles are on offer, the retailer said. Books you buy buy …

reghardware 18 Mar 2010, 10:26
Ex-worker blamed for car immobilisation hack

Repo man rampage

A disgruntled worker allegedly caused chaos after he hacked into a vehicle immobilisation system and remotely disabled cars, Wired reports. More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas were stuck with immobilised cars or horns blaring out of control, after an intruder last month ran amok on a system normally used to warn customers …

Enterprise Security 18 Mar 2010, 10:30
Bare-chested Shetlander welcomes Google with open fingers

Evidently unimpressed with Street View spymobile

The Shetland Islands are proving fertile ground for Street View tomfoolery, and hot on the heels of yesterday's Incredible Hulk revelation we have this chap offering Google's Orwellian black Opel the traditional local welcome: Splendid. Of course, every time we at the El Reg Street View bureau publish something provocative …

Bootnotes 18 Mar 2010, 10:57
Facebook faces Home Sec over lack of 'panic button'

Updated Pressing the issue

Facebook will today meet with Home Secretary Alan Johnson to explain its refusal to publish a "panic button" that would refer users to CEOP, the national online anti-paedophile agency. Johnson has said he sees no good reason for the refusal. Facebook believes its own safety mechanisms are effective. The meeting follows recent …

Government 18 Mar 2010, 11:05
Google extends ARM to browser natives

Native Client plug-in goes portable

Google has told the world that Native Client - its native-code browser plug-in - can now run on ARM chips. When the plug-in was first released a year ago, it only ran on x86 processors, but the company has now updated the platform for x86-64 and ARM. In a blog post, Google said that its initial tests indicate that on both …

Developer 18 Mar 2010, 11:15
Apple bins iPhone covers

Have a proper touchscreen in the naughty naked nude

Apple has stopped selling screen protectors, arguing that the iPhone and iPad should be tough enough without them. iLounge noticed empty shelves in the Apple shop this morning as Cupertino pulled listings for screen protectors, on the grounds that the availability of scratch-resistant plastic covers undermines confidence in …

Mobile 18 Mar 2010, 11:21
HTC 'disagrees' with Apple patent theft claim

Response short on denials, righteous indignation

HTC has said it "disagrees" with Apple's claim that it has ripped off the iPhone maker's intellectual property - currently the subject of a legal battle between the two companies. You wouldn't expect HTC to say anything else, of course, and we'd have been more surprised to see it say it won't "fully defend" itself what it did …

reghardware 18 Mar 2010, 11:30
Berners-Lee says rate countries by data sharing

When open gov attacks

Tim Berners-Lee is calling for governments to do more to open up access to the data they collect. Berners-Lee promotes data.gov.uk, the UK's government data portal which launched in January. It aims to get developers interested in creating applications to make better use of the information collected by the government. So far …

Government 18 Mar 2010, 11:33
Minister: Banks should give ID cards to people with no money

Can't prove who you are? Here's £30 quid then...

Home Office Identical Minister Meg Hillier has hit on a brilliant wheeze that could solve all her social exclusion problems. Banks need proof of ID when you open an account, right? Banks give people free stuff when they open an account, right? Sooooo... banks could give people free ID cards when they open accounts! This …

Government 18 Mar 2010, 11:35
Peer 1 Hosting puts up for Reg space mission

Site News Vulture 1 gets backing

International managed hosting provider, PEER 1 Hosting, today announces its sponsorship of the UK’s Next Space programme which will witness the exciting launch of a high-tech paper plane, named Vulture 1, into space. The mission is set for take-off in Summer 2010. The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme, …

PARIS 18 Mar 2010, 11:49
Supersonic stealth jumpjet achieves its first mid-air hover

Vids Brit test pilot balances on roaring columns of hot air

The F-35B supersonic stealth jumpjet has achieved its first hover in flight testing. British test pilot Graham Tomlinson held aircraft BF-1 stationary in midair 150 feet above the runway yesterday before executing a slow 70-knot rolling landing. The F-35B is now in flight testing at the Patuxent River naval air station in …

Science 18 Mar 2010, 11:56
Net downloads cause 'millions of lost jobs'

I remember when it was all Aeron chairs around here...

A study for the international chamber of commerce reckons 2.7 million jobs have been lost since 2004 in Europe because of unlicensed internet downloads, and warns economic losses could treble to €32bn by 2015. The report is backed by trade unions, including the TUC. The work was led by Patrice Geffon, an economist at Paris …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2010, 12:04
Two jailed for smutty texts

Quite right too

An Indian couple have been jailed for three months each for sending smutty text messages in Dubai. The two, aged 47 and 42, were cabin crew for Dubai Emirates airline. They originally got a six month sentence followed by deportation - this has been cut on appeal to three months and they can stay in the country. The court …

Bootnotes 18 Mar 2010, 12:17
Nashville cops trade fire with leprechaun

Two bank robbers shot dead after St Patrick's Day heist

Tennessee cops yesterday shot dead two fugitives - one dressed as a leprechaun - after the pair robbed a branch of the First State Bank in Nashville. According to AP, one of the men, dressed in "a green top hat, vest and shorts and a fake brown beard and wig", first walked into a Fifth Third Bank in the suburb of Gallatin, …

Bootnotes 18 Mar 2010, 12:36
One in four UK schoolkids admits hacking

Pre-teenage kicks

One in four UK youngsters have tried hacking into Facebook or webmail accounts, according to a new survey. An online poll of 1,000 school-age children in London and 150 in Cumbria discovered that the vast majority (78 per cent) knew that hacking was wrong. Despite this a substantial minority couldn't help themselves from …

ID 18 Mar 2010, 12:40
Aussie smoko-proofing drug prevents ill effects of cigs

Well, most of them

Australian boffins have developed a treatment which allows mice to smoke cigarettes without the usual negative health consequences. The method could potentially allow gasper-loving humans to sidestep some of the self-destructive results of their habit. The key to the business, according to lead cig-boffin Ross Vlahos, is …

Biology 18 Mar 2010, 12:56
FCC shows off spectrum map

Dashboard in beta

The FCC has launched a beta version of its proposed Spectrum Dashboard, showing who owns which airwaves and where in an easy-to-use format. The Spectrum Dashboard is part of the FCC's plan to provide better information about who owns what, and was proposed as part of the National Broadband Plan which went public yesterday - …

Telecoms 18 Mar 2010, 13:14
BBC launches massively parallel Tweet-in

Speak Your Brains... we'll translate

The BBC is hosting a "six hour snapshot of a global conversation as it unfolds" today, simultaneously translating Web2.0rhea contributions into several languages including Chinese, Arabic and Persian. Producer Mark Sandell told us there would be as few barriers to topics as he could get away with. Sandell produces World Have …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2010, 13:23
Fed skewers Google over Tweetbookish Gmail mod

The Buzz on private envelope pushing

An outgoing commissioner with the US Federal Trade Commission has laid into Google for the privacy-envelope-pushing launch of Google Buzz, that web-based thingy that turned Gmail into a Tweetbookish social networking service. "I am especially concerned that technology companies are learning harmful lessons from each other's …

Applications 18 Mar 2010, 13:24
'Racist' job ad sparks investigation

'Indian preferred'

An advert for an IT professional "preferably of Indian origin" is being investigated after complaints were made to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. The ad, placed on jobsite.co.uk, said: "Minimum six years of experience in IT ... The person should be a UK citizen with security clearance from the UK Government. …

CIO 18 Mar 2010, 13:35
UK net 'more resilient' than other EU states

Lords encourage Europe to catch up

The UK's internet infrastructure is better prepared to withstand attack or natural disasters than many European nations', a Lords committee has found. The interconnections between national internet infrastructures however mean the UK could benefit from improvements overseas, the Lords EU Home Affairs sub-Committee found. …

Government 18 Mar 2010, 14:06
Dell bars Win 7 refunds from Linux lovers

Microsoft Windows 7? 'It's free'

Dell has told a Linux-loving Reg reader that he can't receive a refund on the copy of Windows 7 that shipped with his new Dell netbook because it was bundled with the machine for "free". In October, another Reg reader succeeded in gaining a $115 (£70.34) refund from the computer maker after he rejected the licence for …

PCs & Chips 18 Mar 2010, 14:20
Boffins peg co-polymers for cheap chip construction

Molecule lithography breakthrough

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a potential chip-making technique that is the molecular equivalent of Doodles for Fun, a 1970s toy which kids used to make pictures by stretching coloured rubber bands on a pegged board. The MIT team's pegs are silicon posts etched onto a chip using a …

reghardware 18 Mar 2010, 14:23
VMware cuts entry vSphere prices

Spring sale for SMBs

Paul Maritz, ex-Microsoftie and current president and chief executive officer at VMware, is learning just how much fun it is to compete against his former employer. While with vSphere 4.0 VMware arguably has the most sophisticated server virtualization tools in the market, it is tough to beat free and bearing the Microsoft …

Servers 18 Mar 2010, 14:50
Hobbit cameras start rolling in July

Guillermo del Toro poised for action, says Gandalf

Filming on the two Lord of the Rings prequels will kick off in July, according to Sir Ian McKellen, with helmsman Guillermo del Toro already in New Zealand while the script "proceeds". The first film will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, the second an "original story" bridging the 60-year gap between Tolkien's first Middle …

Entertainment 18 Mar 2010, 14:51
Telmap links up with BlueSky

They really have got GPS working on a SIM!

Telmap has integrated its software with BlueSky's GPS-on-a-SIM technology, providing location-based mapping on low-end phones just as soon as they can find a distributor. BlueSky announced that it would embed a GPS receiver into a SIM back in 2007 and promised us a sample by June of that year, but now Telmap tells us it's seen …

Mobile 18 Mar 2010, 15:14
Facebook warns over password reset scam

Galloping Trojans ahoy

Facebook has taken the unusual step of warning users about a bogus password reset scam designed to trick victims into downloading a password-stealing Trojan. Prospective marks are falsely told in widely distributed spam emails that their password has been changed because of a supposed security incident. Targets are invited to …

Crime 18 Mar 2010, 15:29
ISS pair return to terra firma

Back home after five-and-a-half months aloft

The International Space Station's Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Max Suraev returned to Earth earlier today, touching down in Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft. NASA reports that the pair landed at 12:24 GMT and were recovered by teams working in "frigid temperatures". The homecoming …

Space 18 Mar 2010, 15:44
IBM chops high-end Power6 server tags

Not deeply enough

IBM has been mum about when its high-end servers based on the eight-core Power7 processor are going to come to market. With bigger x64 and Itanium boxes around the corner and the 256-core Power 795 machines using Power7s not expected until later this year, though, Big Blue has to do something to get at least some customers to …

Servers 18 Mar 2010, 17:44
Apple board member Jerry York dies at 71

Turned IBM around, predicted GM's demise

Jerome York, the financial mind and turnaround expert who most recently shared his business acumen as a long-serving member of Apple's board of directors, died Thursday morning of a brain aneurysm suffered Tuesday. York was 71 years old. "Jerry joined Apple's Board in 1997 when most doubted the company's future," said Apple …

Business 18 Mar 2010, 20:02
Windows Server to get dynamic memory with R2 SP1

Virtual desktop mashup with Citrix

Microsoft and Citrix Systems hosted a virtual desktop love-in Thursday, talking about how their respective desktop virtualization products mesh well and how the companies will continue to cooperate in the future. Microsoft also lifted the veil on upcoming service packs for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, which have …

Virtualization 18 Mar 2010, 20:50
Court bars charges against teen who posed semi-nude

Sanity enters 'sexting' crusade

A federal appeals court rebuked a Pennsylvania district attorney who threatened to file felony child pornography charges against teens who were photographed semi-nude unless they attended an "education program." In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday by the appeals court in Philadelphia, a three-judge panel said the threat …

Crime 18 Mar 2010, 22:39
Palm: revenues up, expectations down

'Deeply disappointing'

Despite a surge in sales, Palm CFO Doug Jeffries predicts that the smartphone maker's immediate future won't be a happy one. These revelations came today in a conference call with analysts and reporters as Palm announced its third-quarter results for fiscal year 2010. Wall Street immediately spanked the company's stock in …

Financial News 18 Mar 2010, 22:41
Windows Phone 7 Series gets Timotei rinse

Microsoft gets crunchy

Microsoft has airbrushed the Windows Phone 7 Series into a Timotei-style web commercial that glosses over the operating system's limitations. The company has delivered an ad on YouTube featuring the Anthropologie family of Anna, Miles and Luca - plus the babysitter - smiling, taking photos, playing games and casually flipping …

Mobile 18 Mar 2010, 23:04