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13th April 2010 Archive

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  • Jesus Phone in shock Opera browser benediction

    Opera Mini approved for Apple App Store

    Apple has allowed the Opera Mini browser on the Jesus Phone, according to a shock announcement from Opera. With a press release that hit the web very early Norway time on Tuesday, Opera said that its low-bandwidth mobile browser had been approved for the iPhone and iPod touch and that it would be available in the Apple App …

    Mobile 13 Apr 00:54

  • Info-scrubbing algorithm unveiled to protect patient privacy

    Medical data without the secrets

    US researchers have devised a novel way to protect the privacy of patients whose medical histories are included in public databases and electronic medial records, according to news reports. The method, which was unveiled Monday by researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, masks parts of a patient's records that aren …

    ID 13 Apr 02:45

  • Visual Studio 2010 opens Windows to outside help

    Microsoft 'needs' community

    Microsoft reckons Windows is top dog, but that hasn't stopped the giant from cracking open the door in Visual Studio 2010 to some outside help. Bob Muglia, Windows server and tools chief, presided over Microsoft's other - less glamorous - Monday product launch, by pushing Windows on PCs, servers, and mobile and the nascent …

    Software 13 Apr 03:06

  • Gosling gusher sinks Oracle's Java cred

    Comment Losing that lovin' feeling

    Oracle's loss of the father of Java, James Gosling, is by far the biggest in terms of defections the database giant has witnessed since acquiring Sun Microsystems. There has been talk of a Sun "brain drain" ever since the acquisition was finalized in January. The departure of Sun chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy along …

    Software 13 Apr 03:42

  • NoSQL player questions big data

    Hello, VMware

    Memcached specialist Gear6 is blending the DMBS features of query and search with the big data world of NoSQL while aligning with a VMware favorite. The company has announced that it's adding native query capabilities to its Memecached distribution, to turn its Memecached into what it called a "NoSQL-like store". Gear6 will …

    Software 13 Apr 05:02

  • Google boss tells newspapers he feels their pain

    'Charge readers, not me'

    Not content with being the CEO of an ad-selling, phone-punting, operating-system-developing, online-apps-hosting, tablet-designing, and search-providing megacorp, Eric Schmidt apparently believes he's also a newspaper publisher. "We're all in this together," Schmidt was quoted by the Associated Press as having told the ink- …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 06:02

  • Mountain View trials revamped Google Docs

    Forward to the drawing board

    Google is previewing updated incarnations of its web-based document and spreadsheet editors, as it launches a new standalone online application for collaborating with others on digital graphics and drawings. With a Monday blog post, Google said that document and spreadsheet editors previews will roll out to Google Docs users …

    Applications 13 Apr 06:17

  • Gyration Air Mouse Elite

    Review Airborne remote rodent

    Gyration’s accelerometer technology forms the backbone of the Nintendo Wii’s Remote that supports gesture recognition, so with sort of pedigree, I was expecting big things from the manufacturer’s latest peripheral, the Air Mouse Elite. It's a wireless mouse that also functions as a remote control for your PC and whole lot more …

    reghardware 13 Apr 07:02

  • SNIA offers cloud storage standard

    Full of CRUD. Only in a good way

    The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has announced the first cloud storage standard, the Cloud Data Management Interface or CDMI. It provides "the means to access cloud storage and to manage the data stored there". Cloud storage is defined as the delivery of virtualized storage on demand over a network, also …

    Storage 13 Apr 07:02

  • Fear 2012? Bunker hustler has you covered

    $50K saves you from Planet X

    A California entrepreneur is building a series of hardened underground bunkers that he says will be able to save the lives of 4,000 well-heeled bunkernauts should something go terribly, terribly wrong with earth. What might go wrong, you ask? The website of Vivos, the brainchild of founder Robert Vicino, provides a laundry …

    Science 13 Apr 07:02

  • DVLA deals £300m card-style licence contract

    ID cards by any other name

    A Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency contract to supply card-style driving licences could be used to continue to produce ID cards for foreign nationals. In a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union on 9 April 2010, the DVLA says it is looking for a supplier to design services for chipped and non-chipped …

    Government 13 Apr 07:34

  • The desktop demands of board-level managers

    Workshop Can they be kept in the realms of sanity?

    Register readers tell us that supporting employees and their IT equipment is a daily challenge, seemingly designed to expose any weaknesses in the IT team's ability to keep systems available and users working productively. It is interesting to note that it is users of all levels of seniority who provide the test, with …

    Desktop Management 13 Apr 07:58

  • Gartner revises 2010 IT spending upwards

    Crashing dollar cranks up optimism

    Last week it was the prognosticators at Forrester Research who upped their projections for IT spending a teensy bit, calling the end of the tech downturn and the beginning of a tech recovery. This week, the wizards at Gartner are peering into their crystal balls and see a slightly brighter IT picture for this year, too. …

    PCs & Chips 13 Apr 07:58

  • Apple in Brazilian iPad shocker

    Defibrillators at the ready...

    Apple has come a tad unstuck in Brazil over its omnipotent and paradigm-redefining iPad, because the name is already registered to a South Korean defibrillator manufacturer. CU Medical Systems' i-PAD NF1200 is a "semi-automated external defibrillator" distributed by Transform Tecnologia de Ponta, which explained to AFP that's …

    Bootnotes 13 Apr 08:23

  • Tandberg plots 1TB removable hard drive

    Updated More RDX-based products coming

    Tandberg Data is planning a 1TB capacity RDX QuikStor removable hard drive for the August-September period. This will be the first 2.5-inch 1TB drive available. The RDX is a removable 2.5-inch hard drive in a shockproof case. It was developed by ProStor and Tandberg is a licensed maufacturer, along with Imation and the just- …

    Storage 13 Apr 08:49

  • Thousands wrongly labelled by CRB checks

    Compo for job applicants called criminals

    The Criminal Records Bureau has paid out compensation of £290,124 to people wrongly labelled criminals during background checks by the agency. The CRB issued 3,855,881 certificates in 2008/2009. In the same year there were 2,522 disputes handled, and upheld. These claims were brought by the registered body or by the applicant …

    Government 13 Apr 08:50

  • Overzealous Orange cuts off customer, still bills

    Who are you? And where's our money?

    A confused Orange disconnected a customer after he cancelled his brother's account, and then insisted he pay for the suspended line until he produced ID to get reconnected. The chap in question, one Peter McDougall, signed a contract with Orange in December, but his line was cut without warning in the middle of last week. He …

    Mobile 13 Apr 09:17

  • IBM adds Easy Tier to DS8700

    Auto data movement to SSD

    IBM has added an Easy Tier feature to its high-end DS8700 storage array that moves hot data to solid state drives (SSD) automatically. EMS has been promoting this automated data tiering feature with its FAST technology, initiated first at the volume level on its Symmetrix and other arrays and coming at the sub-volume level. …

    Channel Register 13 Apr 09:52

  • FalconStor pushes HyperFS out the door

    Build your own systems

    FalconStor has announced its scale-out HyperFS file system, initially for the media and entertainment industries. It's a software product sold by FalconStor's channel and can use any storage hardware underneath it. The idea is that channel people can build their own systems for their customers, using their own media/ …

    Channel Register 13 Apr 09:55

  • Argentinian jailbreakers dress in sheep's clothing

    Ovine fugitives elude 300 cops

    Two Argentinian jailbreakers who disguised themselves as sheep have managed to elude a dragnet comprising 300 police officers with helicopter back-up. According to La Nación, Maximiliano Omar Montenegro Pereyra, 25, and Ariel Andrés Aguirre Díaz, 28, escaped from the General Alvear maximum security prison in central Buenos …

    Bootnotes 13 Apr 10:10

  • Ticket site sorry for pisspoor password wrong

    Don't wet yourself

    Ticket site Lunatickets apologised to users who got an email overnight telling them their password had been changed. A Reg reader was almost amused to get the following password reset email from the firm. Dear XXX Your password to login to www.lunatickets.co.uk has been reset. Your new password is pissflaps. You can change …

    Bootnotes 13 Apr 10:28

  • eBayer sued for leaving negative feedback

    F-- would not be rude again

    A Florida man faces a $15,000 defamation lawsuit for leaving negative feedback on an eBay seller. Michael Steadman, a 49-year-old welding business owner, bought a $44 employee time clock via the web's favourite tat bazaar in November 2008, Florida Today reports. According to Steadman, the clock arrived in bits and did not …

    Law 13 Apr 10:31

  • Twitter to auction off words

    Advertising? At last!

    Twitter will start auctioning off keywords, gluing promoted tweets to the top of search results, but won't start pushing out advertising until the end of the year. The new service is called "Prompted Tweets" and allows a company to pay to have a specific tweet promoted to the top of search results, with a small note saying who …

    Applications 13 Apr 10:38

  • Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista

    Service pack-free OS life support switched off as few mourn passing

    Microsoft has killed support for its unloved Windows Vista operating system today. The company announced in February that the service pack-free version of its post-XP, pre-Windows 7 OS would hit end of life support in April. This means that from today, the OS which hit manufacturers in late 2006 is left entirely at the mercy …

    Operating Systems 13 Apr 10:46

  • London cops focus on extreme porn, human trafficking

    Under-reported, or over-egged?

    A new command within the Metropolitan Police service will have responsibility for policing extreme porn and indecent images of children as well as prostituion and human trafficking. The creation of the unit is either a vital step forward in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation, or a serious waste of police …

    Policing 13 Apr 11:01

  • Will DNSSEC kill your internet?

    5 May will sort the men from the boys

    Internet users face the risk of losing their internet connections on 5 May when the domain name system switches over to a new, more secure protocol. While the vast majority of users are expected to endure the transition to DNSSEC smoothly, users behind badly designed or poorly configured firewalls, or those subscribing to …

    Telecoms 13 Apr 11:02

  • Ocarina compresses Flash and MPEG2s

    Lossless video compression

    Ocarina can now compress Flash and MPEG2 videos with no visible loss of quality. The company can now reduce the amount of data - it doesn't call it deduplication - in 900 file types, some of which can simply not be reduced at all with deduplication or standard compression techniques. Its addition of Adobe Flash video formats …

    Storage 13 Apr 11:06

  • Antarctic boffins obtain prehistoric deep ice core sample

    Expedition returns from isolated, stormbound camp

    A team of boffins who have been mounting difficult deep drilling operations at a remote camp in Antarctica believe they may have obtained ice cores dating from the last glacial era. "My gut feeling is that the ice at the Bruce Plateau site might have built up during the latter part of the last glacial stage," says Ellen Mosley …

    Environment 13 Apr 11:09

  • Google chief 'paranoid' on security after China attack

    Schmidt spins Chrome for security line after epic fail

    Google's chief exec said the search engine giant is paranoid about further security attacks in the wake of a high-profile assault it blames on hackers in China late last year. Answering questions following an presentation before 400 chief information officers at the Atmosphere 2010 cloud technology conference on Monday, Eric …

    Enterprise Security 13 Apr 11:10

  • Third of XP security suites flunk tests

    'Crashes, freezes, hangs and errors' blight VB run-through

    A third of 60 anti-malware products for Windows XP failed to make the grade in independent security tests. 20 out of 60 security products tested by independent security certification body Virus Bulletin flunked its rigourous VB100 certification, mainly because of false positive problems. False alarms in scanning benign files …

    Malware 13 Apr 11:31

  • Opera for iPhone: The review

    It's speedy, but is that enough?

    At last. Apple approved Opera's Mini browser for the iPhone overnight, and in in a few hours it's already attracted over 150 reviews. They're not all positive, and not all accurate, but it's an indication of how much interest there is in a better browser. While Safari was the jewel in the crown of the iPhone user interface, it …

    Mobile 13 Apr 11:32

  • Facebook rejects CEOP 'panic button' demands (again)

    Mr Gamble goes to Washington

    Facebook has again rejected demands from child abuse investigators to publish a branded "panic button" on its users' profile pages. At a meeting in Washington DC yesterday, the social network told Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) it would make changes to send British …

    Policing 13 Apr 11:46

  • Nokia taps out Twitter phone trio

    Qwerty handsets ahoy

    Nokia has announced three new handsets - the Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 - designed to put better messaging and social networking tools in the hands of more people around the world, at affordable prices. These new handsets feature full QWERTY keyboards, and enable access to a range of different email accounts, IM communities …

    reghardware 13 Apr 12:10

  • Nokia announces Facetwittery-enabled phones

    Poor people get to network too

    Nokia has announced it will bring social networking to the masses on its freshly minted C3, C6 and E5 phones. This comes just a day after Microsoft did the same for mobile Windows users, and Sony Ericsson is promising to catch up. The Nokia phones will communcate with Facebook and Twitter, as well as Ovi Mail and Chat. …

    Mobile 13 Apr 12:27

  • Tories put ID cards, Contactpoint on manifesto hit list

    Decentralised techie state is the aim

    The Conservative Party Manifesto, published today, is a slap in the face for all those who have been claiming that there is very little difference between the two major parties when it comes to policy. There are clearly major differences in what a Conservative government would do: for instance, they would scrap ID cards, the …

    Government 13 Apr 12:33

  • Sony Ericsson intros Flac friendly music phone

    New Walkpersons announced

    Sony Ericsson has extended its new 'give phones names not numbers' approach to nomenclature to its Walkman line, introducing the Zylo and Spiro. Sony Ericsson's Spiro: music maestro? Both phones are sliders and sport the usual Walkman track controls around the navpad. Both do A2DP Bluetooth stereo audio, have RDS FM radios …

    reghardware 13 Apr 12:35

  • Open-source Sugar snared by Jobsian code block

    SugarCon 2010 HTML and back again

    Open-source CRM developer SugarCRM has been snared by the dark, so-called brilliance of Apple's whip-tongued chief executive Steve Jobs. SugarCRM has completely re-written the mobile version of its software to work on Apple's iPhone and the iPad, dumping HTML to run on natively using Appcelerator's Titanium. SugarCRM for the …

    Mobile 13 Apr 13:02

  • Portal crossbreeds backups of earth and sky

    'Cloud' storage puts feet on ground

    CTERA Networks - a fledgling storage outfit based in Israel - has introduced a platform for overseeing storage services that span the local office and the so-called cloud. The CTERA Portal is meant for ISPs and other resellers who provide such storage services to small businesses and branch offices. The UK-based Optix Software …

    Channel Register 13 Apr 13:02

  • Spacewalkers polish off ISS ammonia tank

    Third jaunt wraps Discovery mission EVAs

    Mission specialists Clayton Anderson and Rick Mastracchio have completed the installation of a new Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) on the International Space Station with a six-hour, 24-minute spacewalk - their third and final STS-131 mission EVA. The pair ventured outside the orbiting outpost at 06:14 GMT, and Mastracchio ( …

    Space 13 Apr 13:09

  • Apple updates MacBook Pro notebooks

    Updated Nvidia Optimus technology on board?

    Apple has updated its MacBook Pro laptop line, promising not only faster processors and better graphics but also a longer battery life. The 15.4in Pro gets a choice of 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz Core i5s, both with 3MB of L3 cache. The machines can make use of the on-CPU graphics core or Nvidia's GeForce GT 330M 256MB GPU, which is …

    reghardware 13 Apr 13:14

  • Sepaton adds support for Symantec's OST

    Will move toward NAS interfaces

    Sepaton is today adding support for Symantec's OST interface to its S2100-ES2 virtual tape library and DeltaStor deduplication software. It also has a strategy for extending its products to include CIFS and NFS support, and plans to move into the archive and potentially the search space. OST or Open Storage Technology is an …

    Storage 13 Apr 13:57

  • Nokia X3 sliderphone

    Review Simple, but effective

    Hot on the heels of the music-centric Nokia X6 touchscreen smartphone comes the X3, a scaled down version, with running Symbian S40 this time rather than S60, but with a similar UI on top. There’s no touch screen or Comes With Music, no 3G or Wi-Fi or GPS, though it does have a 3.2Mp camera and yet still has music in mind. …

    reghardware 13 Apr 14:04

  • Real-time ad targeting violates privacy, say US pressure groups

    Complaint slams 'ambiguous' opt-out procedures

    US consumer regulator the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been asked by consumer groups to investigate some of the internet's biggest companies in a review of whether users' rights are violated by online advertising systems. The complaint (pdf) claims that ad systems are increasingly based on personalised targeting, that …

    Law 13 Apr 14:07

  • Last.fm now offers Less.fm

    Scrobbler nobbles free full-track streams

    CBS-owned music site Last.fm offers Less.fm today, after a decision to stop streaming full length tracks. Instead, it will provide a 30-second preview of a song and a link to other sites carrying the full song, such as Spotify and Mog. The company explains that the new arrangement covers the two million most popular tracks. It …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 14:18

  • EU agency zooms in on 'Flying 2.0'

    More RFID? You're spoiling us!

    An EU cyber security agency has developed recommendations for the introduction of greater use of RFID technology in air travel. The recommendations from ENISA (The European Network and Information Security Agency) focus on the greater use of RFID-based tags on luggage as well as the ongoing rollout of biometric chips in …

    Government 13 Apr 14:46

  • Seagate tempts hard drive buyers with Star Trek

    Plus 20 films ready to be unlocked for a fee

    Seagate is partnering with Paramount to release 21 of the studio's recent films on the hard drive maker's 500GB FreeAgent Go external HDD. It sounds a good deal, but there is no shortage of catches. Firstly, only one film is free: J J Abrams' remake of Star Trek. The remainder are available to purchase for $10-15. In order to …

    reghardware 13 Apr 15:59

  • IBM sharpens Power7 blades

    Twice the oomph. For less

    IBM seems to finally be getting serious about Power-based blade servers. Today's launch of the Power Systems 701 and 702 blades, which use the new eight-core Power7 chips, offer about twice the performance of their predecessors, the JS23 and JS43 machines that were delivered using dual-core Power6+ chips last April. The use the …

    Servers 13 Apr 16:27

  • Bioshock 2

    Review Successful sequel shock?

    Released in late 2007, the first Bioshock was the perfect antidote to an unending stream of derivative first person shooters. Borrowing elements from RPGs and brimming with fresh ideas, both in its aesthetic and play mechanics, Bioshock offered a compelling blend of first-person shooter (FPS) and RPG within a highly polished and …

    reghardware 13 Apr 17:40

  • Breach on Fort Apache.org exposes passwords

    Open-sourcers disclose three-day intrusion

    Hackers penetrated the heavily-fortified servers for Apache.org in a "direct, targeted attack" that captured the passwords of anyone who used the website's bug-tracking service over a three-day span last week. The breach, the second to hit Apache.org in eight months, also exposed a much larger list of passwords belonging to …

    Security 13 Apr 19:08

  • Google to open source $124.6m video codec, says report

    Flash lover eyes video freedom for all

    Google will take a swashbuckling step towards license-free web video playback next month when it open sources the leading video codec from a company it just acquired for $124.6 million, according to a report citing multiple people familiar with the matter. NewTeeVee reports that Mountain View will open source On2's VP8 codec …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 19:16

  • Oracle drops top architect into MySQL skeptic zone

    MySQL Con The lonely sound of the solo clapper

    It was a skeptical crowd of MySQLers that greeted Oracle's chief software architect at their annual conference on Tuesday, where he tried to sound reassuring on the future of their database. Edward Screven's message was simple: Oracle will continue to develop, maintain, and improve the community and Enterprise editions of …

    Applications 13 Apr 19:18

  • Steve Jobs: 'Pad? That's my word'

    New frontiers in control freakiness

    The latest off-the-cuff email from Steve Jobs has injected another soupçon of silliness into the ongoing kerfuffle over the iPad's name - and in doing so, it has further established the CEO of the Decade's reputation for imperious disregard for the developers who have contributed mightily to his company's success. Jobs' most …

    Mobile 13 Apr 20:11

  • Fedora tempts fate with Apollo 13 beta

    Houston, we have no problem

    If thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number, why tempt the Fates and launch the beta of a thirteenth version of a product on the thirteenth of the month - and on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission to the Moon, which damned near killed its three astronauts? And particularly when you have code-named that release " …

    Operating Systems 13 Apr 20:12

  • Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle unite with massive patch batch

    Patch Tuesday Extreme Edition

    It was an extreme version of Patch Tuesday as Microsoft, Adobe Systems, and Oracle released updates that fixed dozens of critical vulnerabilities in their wares. As part of Microsoft's monthly patch regimen, the software giant issued 11 updates that patched a total of 25 bugs. At least three of the vulnerabilities resided in …

    Enterprise Security 13 Apr 21:35

  • VMware SpringSources for open source Rabbit

    Messaging in the heavens

    VMware's open-source Java framework specialist SpringSource has acquired Rabbit Technologies, a UK-based outfit that offers an open source messaging platform for systems floating across so-called infrastructure clouds. "We believe that messaging is a key technology in cloud computing," SpringSource general manager Rod Johnson …

    Developer 13 Apr 21:42

  • Otellini says IT economy no longer dying

    As Intel profits soar 288%

    According to Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini, his "industry is nearly fully recovered" - and if his company's financial performance in the first quarter of 2010 is any indication, he may be right. Intel's net income for the quarter was $2.4bn - and while that was a mere 7 per cent improvement over the traditionally …

    Business 13 Apr 23:09

  • Big Data open-source duo united under Apache

    Hadoop and Cassandra search together

    As big-data hook ups go, they don't get much bigger: NoSQL and distributed computing pin ups Cassandra and Hadoop have been united by the Apache Software Foundation. ASF has released Apache Cassandra 0.6, adding support for its Hadoop project. Both Cassandra and Hadoop are ASF projects, with Cassandra only graduating from …

    Software 13 Apr 23:26

  • Xen 4.0 adds Remus fault tolerance

    Transcendental memory

    The open source Xen project finally caught up to VMware in the release numbering wars, kicking out the 4.0 release of its eponymous hypervisor for servers and desktops. Xen 4.0 follows Xen 3.4.2, which was announced last November, and Xen 3.4.1, which came out last August. Both are still being absorbed by Citrix Systems and …

    Virtualization 13 Apr 23:31

  • Fedora 13 - Ubuntu's smart but less attractive cousin

    Review Inner refinement

    Number 13 is indeed an unlucky number for the next release of Fedora. Unfortunately for this popular distro, its beta arrives at almost the same time as the next release of Ubuntu, Lucid Lynx. The Fedora 13 beta could get eclipsed by Ubuntu 10.04, later this month, because it lacks some of the flashy new features found in …

    Operating Systems 13 Apr 23:46