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9th April 2010 Archive

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  • 'Virtual sit-in' tests line between DDoS and free speech

    Civil disobedience in the digital age

    A University of California professor who organized a "virtual sit-in" that targeted the university president's website has been told he may face criminal charges for mounting a distributed denial of service attack. UC San Diego Professor Ricardo Dominguez spearheaded the March 4 digital protest by calling on demonstrators to …

    Security 9 Apr 00:04

  • iPhone 4.0 SDK bars un-Jobsian code translation

    Shed another tear for Adobe

    Apple's new SDK for the iPhone 4.0 OS bars developers from accessing the company's APIs through any sort of intermediary layer that translates applications written in ways Steve Jobs doesn't approve of. This will likely prevent the iPhone packager in Adobe's upcoming Flash Professional CS5 development suite from converting …

    Developer 9 Apr 01:07

  • Cisco ratchets networking for unified servers

    Customer haul

    Cisco Systems did more than launch two new servers earlier this week. It also rejiggered some of the networking gear used in conjunction with its Unified Computing System wares and talked a bit about its customers. As El Reg previously reported and has been goading Cisco about since last year, the company finally put some four …

    Servers 9 Apr 04:39

  • Microsoft: Silverlight youth beats Flash experience

    Outta your sandbox

    It sounds like Microsoft is getting the same treatment from Apple as Adobe Systems when it comes to putting its media player on the iPad and iPhone. It's been put on hold. Regardless of whether Silverlight makes it on to either, Microsoft still feels pretty good about how it stacks up against Flash in security - an area where …

    Developer 9 Apr 05:36

  • Mozilla betas Flash flak jacket with 'Lorentz'

    You down with OOPP?

    Mozilla has released a public beta of Firefox "Lorentz," a test version of Firefox 3.6 designed to minimize crashes by running Flash, Silverlight, Java, and other plug-ins as processes separate from the core browser. The open sourcers call these "out of process plug-ins," or OOPP, and they're also under test with the developer …

    Applications 9 Apr 06:09

  • Has Compellent caught a cold?

    Second quarter of depressed earnings likely

    Compellent is ending seventeen quarters of revenue growth with an expected $4.3m to $4.8m sequential revenue decrease for its first 2010 quarter. CEO Phil Soran has issued reduced guidance for the quarter, saying revenues are expected to be between $31.5m and $32m, significantly lower than the forecast $35m to $37m. Last …

    Storage 9 Apr 07:02

  • Ten Essential Android Apps

    Product Round-up The mobile applications to download first

    You've taken delivery of your shiny new Android handset, you've logged into the Googleverse and now you're thinking 'what next?'. Well, you can start by downloading the following ten apps that will help you get the most from your handset. Whether you want to read, write, chat, work, travel, watch some TV or just to keep your …

    reghardware 9 Apr 07:15

  • LG slashes cost of OLED TVs

    Still not cheap, though

    LG has revealed how much it expects its upcoming 15in OLED HD TV to cost consumers. The good news: it's a lot less than Sony wants for its 11in Xel-1 OLED telly. The bad news: you'll still be able to buy an enormo LCD screen with LED backlighting and all the latest features for the same price. LG's EL9500: biggest, cheapest …

    reghardware 9 Apr 07:16

  • Lenovo delays ARM-based netbook?

    Extra wait for all-day, always-on mini laptop

    Lenovo may have delayed its eagerly anticipated ARM-based netbook, the Skylight, it has been claimed. Originally scheduled to appear on US shop shelves this month, the mini notebook will not now debut until July, transatlantic title Laptop Magazine has alleged, citing moles from within Lenovo. Lenovo's Skylight: delayed? …

    reghardware 9 Apr 07:34

  • DWP admits multiple fraud system failures

    9 hours of disruption in 2010

    A Department for Work and Pensions minister has disclosed that the department's Fraims system has experienced numerous instances of disruption since January. According to a parliamentary written answer published on 7 April 2010, the DWP has logged over nine hours of disruptions to the Fraud Referral and Intervention Management …

    Government 9 Apr 07:40

  • Lenovo intros third-gen netbook

    Gets latest Atom

    Lenovo has introduced the third generation of its IdeaPad S10 netbook. The new model brings Intel's latest Atom technology to the series. The S10-3 incorporates Intel's 1.66GHz Atom N450 CPU - a processor that has an on-board graphics chip for greater energy efficiency. Lenovo's IdeaPad S10-3: latest Atom on board So says …

    reghardware 9 Apr 07:57

  • Controlling the fallout of a data loss

    Being proactive saves face

    If readers want to examine an interesting example of how to manage a data loss, have a look at what happened at the London Borough of Barnet. A data loss involving 9,000 children followed a burglary of the home of a member of staff. The loss included the council’s computer equipment (a laptop), CD Roms and memory sticks, along …

    Security 9 Apr 08:25

  • Power management and carbon footprints

    Workshop Is it important, is it important to you?

    April 1, 2010 was a not classic All Fools' day in the UK press, although The Register did pull off a few half-decent pranks itself, including news of an alien invasion through the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Now that the April Fools' jokes have been exposed it should be safe to confirm something that wasn't one - the " …

    Server Management 9 Apr 08:37

  • A user's timetable to the Digital Economy Act

    P2P: What happens next?

    Now that the Digital Economy Act has been passed by both Houses, what can internet users expect, and when? Quick answer: nothing much soon. The outgoing government says it introduced the measures because in the 20 months since the MoU between ISPs and copyright businesses, little progress has been made. So the P2P part of the …

    Law 9 Apr 08:56

  • Texas Memory Systems launches 10TB flash array

    Doubles previous best

    A year after launching a 5TB, 250,000 IOPS RamSan-620, flash storage co Texas Memory Systems is bringing out a doubled-up product, boasting 10 terabytes and half a million sustained IOPS. The RamSan-630 offers 4GB/sec, compared to the 620's 3GB/sec, with 10 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel links. TMS says that 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel is …

    Storage 9 Apr 09:14

  • Ofcom consultation brings out the tinfoil hatters

    Mobile proposals to summon four horsemen

    Quadrupling the transmission power of 3G networks will lead to famine, mass starvation and scurvy for all, not to mention annoying cameramen and the MoD, if the hysterical response to Ofcom's new proposals is to be believed. The terrifying prospect of "a slow and painful death" is among the reasoned responses to Ofcom's …

    Mobile 9 Apr 09:35

  • TalkTalk, ORG see cash from Mandybill chaos

    We failed. Give us money

    Never let the facts, or taste, get in the way of a marketing campaign, we say. TalkTalk boldly promised today to fight disconnection requests in court, at least until after the election. Carphone Warehouse strategy director Andrew Heaney made the pledge on his blog. The fact that ISPs don't get any disconnection requests, and …

    Law 9 Apr 09:39

  • Yahoo! tech! boss! quits!

    Company rumoured to be in talks with ex-Microsoft wonk

    Yahoo’s! CTO and head of products has quit the company citing personal reasons, it was confirmed yesterday. Ari Balogh, who joined Yahoo! in February 2008, will leave his post on 3 June. The firm said it would announce a replacement in the coming weeks. In the meantime, All Things Digital is citing several inside sources who …

    Music and Media 9 Apr 10:06

  • MS preps 5 Windows critical fixes for busy Patch Tuesday

    25 fixes overall

    Microsoft has lined up 11 patches that collectively address 25 security vulnerabilities as part of its April Patch Tuesday security update. Five of the scheduled patches fix critical flaws, all involving Windows vulnerabilities. All supported versions of Windows are addressed by this much heavier than usual update batch. " …

    Operating Systems 9 Apr 10:07

  • CEOP renews attack on Facebook

    'A chosen site for rapists and murderers?'

    The chief of the national anti-paedophile agency has launched another scathing attack on Facebook, branding its refusal to publish an official "panic button" on users' profiles as "arrogant". Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP (the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), publicised figures today showing more …

    Policing 9 Apr 10:25

  • Austrian takes pickaxe to Street View spymobile

    Septuagenarian has hard line on privacy

    An Austrian old timer could be in a spot of bother with police after he chased a Street View spymobile with a pickaxe, the Austrian Times reports. Google's Orwellian Opels have apparently come out of winter hibernation to continue their invasion of Austria. This didn't go down too well with 70-year-old Hermann Zach, who …

    Bootnotes 9 Apr 10:58

  • eBay trumps Tiffany in trade mark ruling

    US appeals court: Hosting auctions of fakes doesn't infringe

    eBay does not infringe jewellery shop Tiffany's trade marks when counterfeits are sold by sellers at the online auction site. Tiffany has lost its appeal in the US against the same decision as made by a lower court. Tiffany claimed that by allowing people to sell fakes, eBay infringed its trade marks. The 2nd US Circuit Court …

    Law 9 Apr 11:11

  • The great desktop refresh debate

    On Demand Stick or twist

    Last week in a secret central London studio, somewhere beneath the bells of St Pauls, a crack squad of desktop experts gathered round the fireside for a mid-afernoon discussion on the desktop refresh. The Register’s own incomparable host Tim Phillips chaired the discussion, and he was joined on our new comfy chairs by our old …

    Desktop Management 9 Apr 11:14

  • Murdoch hacks grumble over outsourced IT failures

    Freddie Starr ate my email server

    To picturesque Wapping, where unrest among hacks and techies about recent IT cuts at News International is bubbling following a 24-hour email outage yesterday that crippled newsrooms and commercial operations alike. Cast in the role of villain is CIO Andrew Hickey, the man responsible for a broad IT outsourcing deal in …

    IT Director 9 Apr 11:15

  • Bloke threatens BT with giant plywood cheque

    Cash this, suggests hacked-off Reg reader

    It's Friday, so we're sure the following heartwarming tale will cheer your final slog into the weekend: how Reg reader David Humpage is giving BT some serious grief with giant novelty cheques. David wrote to the El Reg consumer affairs department explaining that a couple of years back he noticed he was being charged £4.50 a …

    Telecoms 9 Apr 11:17

  • Wi-LAN throws down Bluetooth patent glove

    Updated Not content with ongoing Wi-Fi suits

    Fighting everyone involved in Wi-Fi and WiMAX is not enough for Canadian patent hoarder Wi-LAN, which is now also slapping a suit on 31 companies connected to Bluetooth. The list of targets includes Apple, Intel, Dell and Sony, along with component manufacturers such as Marvell, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, all of which are …

    Wireless 9 Apr 11:19

  • Google slots nested labels, sneak peek experiments into Gmail

    Shrugs off folders once again

    Mountain View has plonked two more experimental features into its Google Labs for Gmail. “Nested labels” is the company’s latest attempt to improve its email labelling system, while “message sneak peek” brings up a preview pane for Gmailers to more quickly see their emails. As is standard with Google Labs features, users will …

    Applications 9 Apr 11:30

  • Does your IT universe revolve around ERP?

    Workshop Taking a more positive view of integration work

    There are a couple of major pivot points for activity within the IT landscape. The first is the mainframe - that beast sitting in the data centre doing all the really important grown up processing and data management - which demands respect and needs to be constantly fed with budget and attended to by the high priests of that …

    ERP 9 Apr 11:44

  • Get ready for the revolution: internet TVs

    Connect the set

    Not so long ago, a TV was just something for presenting broadcast programmes or content from devices like DVD players. If you wanted anything more exotic, you had to hook up a media player or perhaps a PC. More and more sets sprouted DVI or VGA ports to make that easier. But that’s now started to change. The 2009 models from …

    reghardware 9 Apr 12:15

  • Labour unfriends Twitter rant candidate

    David Cameron a 'tw*t', tweets wannabe MP

    The Labour Party has unfriended a wannabe Scottish MP who used Twitter to broadside fellow politicos, potential voters and Johnnie Walker Red Label. Stuart MacLennan was pitching for the seat in Moray until it was discovered he'd called David Cameron a "twat", Lib Dem supremo Nick Clegg "a bastard" and Labour MP Diane Abbott " …

    Government 9 Apr 12:23

  • China routing snafu briefly mangles interweb

    Cockup, not conspiracy

    Bad routing information sourced from China has disrupted the internet for the second time in a fortnight. Global BGP (Border Gateway Routing) lookup tables sucked in data from a small ISP called IDC China Telecommunication, apparently accidentally broadcast by state-owned carrier China Telecommunications, IDG reports. ISPs …

    Telecoms 9 Apr 12:24

  • Discovery team wrap first ISS spacewalk

    STS-131 mission running smoothly

    Mission specialists Clayton Anderson and Rick Mastracchio (seen below) earlier today ventured outside the International Space Station on the first of three planned spacewalks for space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission. The pair exited the Quest airlock at 05:31 GMT, and during the six-hour, 27-minute EVA "disconnected …

    Space 9 Apr 12:26

  • Tories offer automated boring of friends and neighbours

    Turn to Facebook to dodge doorstep abuse

    The Tories launched a Facebook app this morning that allows supporters to harangue their friends and neighbours without having to think too hard or knock on people's doors. The Share for Change page, which can be found here, gives supporters four messages which they can "share" with their Facebook friends. The current four …

    Government 9 Apr 12:28

  • Toshiba teams up with Violin for an enterprise storage revolution

    Comment 'Leading the MLC charge'

    Toshiba has completed a funding round that will see it investing $20m in Violin Memory and bringing its multi-level cell (MLC) flash technology to the table. Violin recently gained a new CEO, Don Basile, and wants to replace the hard drive storage of tier one enterprise data with flash array storage, teaming up with Toshiba …

    Storage 9 Apr 13:09

  • Tory £12bn public sector cuts proposal would claim IT scalps

    UK tech industry takes biggest hit

    A Tory government would cut spending on public sector IT projects, office costs, contracts and hiring of new staff in an effort to hold back £12bn and swerve a rise in National Insurance contributions. David Cameron's party finally fleshed out Conservative plans on public spending this morning. Tory adviser Sir Peter Gershon …

    Government 9 Apr 13:13

  • What’s new and improving about IT today?

    Lab Plus ça change…

    For anyone who has been in IT for a while, all that new and improved stuff can quite quickly feel like the same-old-same-old, repackaged for the latest generation of supposedly tech-literate masses. Still, the “I’ve seen it all before” game can be a dangerous one to play. It is too easy (for example) to look at social media and …

    Platform Evolution 9 Apr 13:38

  • World's biggest app store starts stocking shelves

    Joint Innovation Lab opens for business

    Vodafone's Joint Innovation Labs is open for business, promising to approve applications in ten days and eventually provide access to more than a billion customers. The 'Lab was set up a couple of years ago by Vodafone and China Mobile, with the intention of setting standard APIs for AJAX-style applications. Those APIs were …

    Mobile 9 Apr 14:06

  • Bribery Act passed by Parliament

    Slip us a fiver and we'll tell you all about it

    A new bribery law has been passed by the Houses of Commons and Lords but is not yet in force. The Bribery Act can penalise companies whose employees engage in bribery if the company did not have adequate policies in place to prevent it. The law gives a more certain definition of what bribery is and updates a law that was seen …

    Channel Register 9 Apr 14:50

  • Windows mobile Trojan poses as war game

    Shoot 'em up racks up premium rate calls

    Miscreants have created a Trojaned version of a Windows mobile game that makes expensive international phone calls from compromised smartphones. Pirated versions of 3D Anti-terrorist action, a first-person shooter developed by Beijing Huike Technology in China, and uploaded onto several Windows Mobile freeware download sites, …

    Malware 9 Apr 16:53

  • Java bug exposes users to serious code-execution risk

    Researchers disclose because Oracle won't

    Researchers have discovered a flaw in the latest version of Oracle's Java runtime environment that attackers can exploit to remotely execute malicious code on end user machines. The bug in the Java Web Start component has been confirmed exploitable on all recent versions of Windows by Tavis Ormandy, a security researcher who …

    Security 9 Apr 19:46

  • Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn'

    Updated No real people pictured

    Update: This story has been updated to show that Larry Sanger now says that the images in question do not depict real people and to include additional legal clarification. And it was later updated a second time with additional clarification about federal law 18USC 2258A, which requires electronic service providers to notify the …

    Music and Media 9 Apr 21:20

  • Super Micro goes platinum

    Super efficient white boxes

    Super Micro, the king of the whitebox server makers, has launched a new platinum series of server platforms that feature super-efficient power supplies. Although the power supply is arguably the most boring part of a server, over the long haul having an efficient power supply can save more money than it costs to buy one. In …

    Servers 9 Apr 22:33

  • Nexsan postpones IPO - again

    Hello, is the recession back?

    AutoMAID spindown storage startup Nexsan has postponed its planned IPO due to poor market conditions. This comes days after Compellent, another supplier of storage to small and medium enterprises had to drop its revenue guidance for the first quarter of the year. This is Nexsan's second IPO attempt, and we'll have to wait and …

    Storage 9 Apr 22:36

  • Google tweaks search results with mystery site speedometer

    Slow-to-loads get the drop

    Google is now using site speed - "how quickly a site responds to web requests" - as part of the criteria for ranking links on its world-dominating search engine. With a blog post in December, Google seemed to indicate that such a change was in the cards, and the company formally announced the change on Friday with another post …

    Music and Media 9 Apr 22:37

  • Fanboi's delight - the top ten free iPad apps

    And the top 12 bridesmaids

    Either you just bought an iPad and you wallet is now depleted, you're thinking of buying one and you'd like to know how you can stuff it with apps for zero dollars, or you're simply curious about how free iPad apps compare with free iPhone apps. Or you're merely intrigued by the whole media-fed iPad hysteria. In any case, The …

    Mobile 9 Apr 22:42