The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

19th April 2010 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Cray mimics Ethernet atop SeaStar interconnect

    Linux shortcut cooks with SLES

    Supercomputer maker Cray doesn't talk much about the systems software that runs on its massively parallel, midrange, or entry HPC gear, but it probably will start doing so more because of the work it has done to make its non-standard XT boxes look a little less proprietary as far as Linux applications are concerned. The …

    HPC 19 Apr 2010, 02:02

  • Microsoft stealth launches 'historic' programming language

    Hidden F# strikes right note

    Launching a new language is easy - getting it used is hard. The combination of existing code and existing skills is a strong barrier to adoption, and even excellent languages like Ruby and Python have struggled to break out of their niches. What hope is there for F#, the new language that Microsoft has sneaked into Visual …

    Developer 19 Apr 2010, 04:02

  • AMD: Our best competitive server position in years

    Comment Gonna make it up in volume

    If you were thinking that Advanced Micro Devices was going to report killer server processor sales in its first quarter 2010 financial results, you were bound to be disappointed. The company is in the middle of two product transitions and is lagging behind its rival by several weeks and a certain amount of OEM enthusiasm. But …

    Servers 19 Apr 2010, 08:02

  • Fusion-io gets $45m in C-round

    Whopping financial injection

    Rumour Central says Fusion-io just got a $45m-$47m injection of funds in a C-round of investment. Fusion-io is the supplier of PCIe bus-connected ioDrive and ioDuo flash solid state drives (SSD) using both single and multi-level cell flash. It has recently promoted its co-founder and chief technology officer David Flynn to the …

    Storage 19 Apr 2010, 08:02

  • UN split on cybercrime conventions

    Follow Euro model or go for something new?

    A United Nations committee on international crime prevention is split on how to deal with cybercrime. Some countries want the existing European convention to be adopted worldwide, while others want a completely new agreement to be created. At the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Brazil last week nations …

    Policing 19 Apr 2010, 08:05

  • Ash cans flights for another day

    More peace for London

    Flights to and from the UK have been cancelled until at least 1am Tuesday. The Met Office will continue to issue updates four times a day but NATS is currently warning that the ash cloud remains dynamic. The air traffic organisation said it was working with airlines, airports, engine manufacturers and government to get planes …

    Government 19 Apr 2010, 08:13

  • Veteran UK fraud fighter 'BobBear' retires

    Pipe and slippers for celebrated anti-phishing crusader

    Veteran UK-based fraud fighter Bob Harrison, who runs phish victim support website BobBear, has announced plans to retire at the end of April. BobBear has greatly inconvenienced phishing fraudsters over the last four years by publishing details of fake corporations and scams. He also took on the unfashionable job of providing …

    Crime 19 Apr 2010, 08:15

  • Political targeting: An unhealthy business

    A pox on voter choice indeed

    Over-targeting of electoral messages can cause problems, as the Labour Party found out to its cost last week when opponents accused it of exploiting confidential individual data to warn breast cancer sufferers that they might die under a Tory government. The episode was, according to Tory leader David Cameron "sick" and "an …

    Government 19 Apr 2010, 09:02

  • 'R2' robot to join space station crew, says NASA

    Not a proper R2 unit though - can't do EVA

    NASA has announced that once again life is to imitate art, as the human race's principal manned spacecraft - the International Space Station (ISS) - is soon to gain a robot crewmember known as "R2". Probably doesn't have a message from an imperilled princess or anything. Rather than a small ambulatory bleeping dustbin …

    Space 19 Apr 2010, 09:04

  • Apple sets 3G iPad for May 7 as Sprint ups ante to 4G

    While Blighty price predicted at £399

    Americans will get the 3G iPad before UK punters can even order a Wi-Fi model, at an expected price of £399. And Americans can even get 4G connectivity, after Sprint ran up its own WiMAX case for the jumbo pod. Apple has just slipped the 3G iPad onto its US on-line store with a shipping date of May 7, three days before the Wi …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2010, 09:37

  • Violent vid games send teens to sleep

    Visual Prozac

    Thirteen teenage boys in an Aussie sleep study played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for 50 minutes sat in bed (not the same one) under the covers with electrodes attached and lights dimmed. Most fell asleep within seven-and-a-half minutes of stopping the game. They took four minutes to drop off after watching the visual …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 09:37

  • Phone me the way to go home

    Paper maps are for old-fashioned chaps

    Just a matter of time before most of us call on our mobile phones for in-car satnav. Millions of Europeans may already be there, according to a Comscore study, which estimates that 21 million mobile users in the five biggest Western European countries (UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy), use their handsets for navigation. …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 10:03

  • DoH puts brakes on Summary Care Record

    Suspends previously-hurried implementation

    The Department of Health has suspended the creation of the central electronic patient record in regions where it had planned for an accelerated implementation. It has told the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP IT committee that it would halt the work until more had been done to spread awareness about the Summary Care …

    Government 19 Apr 2010, 10:07

  • What does YOUR IT crystal ball say?

    Lab Taking a cold hard look at change

    Here’s a question for you. Is change really afoot in the way your organisation ‘does’ IT? I know, dumb question, of course it is – but not in the way that some might think. For a start, business and IT are constantly about change, for better or worse. My corporate days used to be full of meetings, initiatives, reorganisations …

    Platform Evolution 19 Apr 2010, 10:15

  • Arista goes modular with 10 Gig E switches

    10 Tb/sec for 384 ports

    The High Performance Computing Linux Financial Markets trade show is on today in New York, and Andy Bechtolsheim, twice the chief technology officer at the Oracle-borged Sun Microsystems, is using the event to launch the first modular 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch from his latest company, Arista Networks. And it looks like …

    Data Networking 19 Apr 2010, 10:18

  • Sage confirms Walker's departure

    26-year veteran seeks new challenges

    Paul Walker, chief executive of Sage Group, is leaving the company after 26 years, 16 of them in the top spot. In a statement this morning Sage confirmed Walker would be leaving "in due course". But first he will work with the board to find a replacement and "ensure a seamless transition". The accountancy software provider …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2010, 10:24

  • Fring cops to unchangeable passwords

    Security isn't a Fring thing

    Do you use Fring? Do you change your passwords regularly? If you answered yes to both then you're lying, as Fring has admitted that changing the password isn't an option. Fring is an identity-aggregator which combines instant messaging and VoIP applications, routing connections through its servers to provide an integrated …

    ID 19 Apr 2010, 10:26

  • Nine year-old blamed for US school system hack

    Youngster uses teacher's login to redraw Blackboard

    Police hunting a hacker who had attacked a US school's systems found themselves cornering a "very intelligent" 9 year old instead, it has emerged. When passwords for teachers at Spring Hill Elementary, Virginia, were changed without authorisation the school board initially thought a hacker had broken into the school district's …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2010, 10:39

  • Splinter Cell stunt misfires: Armed police respond

    When marketing goes bad

    A man who pointed an imitation pistol at 20 drinkers outside an Auckland, NZ bar on Friday evening got more than he bargained for when armed police were called out. The toy gun-wielding actor was pulling a stunt to promote Splinter Cell: Conviction, the hit Ubisoft title (our review is here), and was arrested with an …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 10:52

  • Microsoft yanks KIN ad boob

    Don't get tits out for lad(ie)s, after all

    Microsoft has deleted a clip from one of its KIN ads that showed a young bloke surreptitiously photographing his breast before sending the image to a woman. Redmond apologised for including the scene in the ad for its new so-called "social phone", after an alarmist US consumer group complained that the clip promoted sexting …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2010, 10:57

  • Youth reject Facebook's death of privacy claims

    Kids want it but don't know get it

    Young people do care about their privacy, a new survey has found, contradicting the claims of Silicon Valley plutocrats. Earlier this year Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg became the latest tech billionaire to proclaim the death of personal privacy, saying digital yoof are not concerned by it. A poll of US 18 to 24-year-olds …

    Music and Media 19 Apr 2010, 11:01

  • Dell Inspiron One 19 Touch touchscreen all-in-one

    Review Gives the finger to touch tech PC price premiums

    Despite appearing on sale in larger numbers in recent months, touchscreen PCs still tend to be sold as luxury items with a price to match. So with the Inspiron One 19 Touch, which starts from under £500, Dell is deliberately giving the whole touchscreen PC market a boot up the backside. All fingers and thumbs: Dell's Inspiron …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 11:02

  • Should all hard drives be encrypted?

    Workshop Clear as mud

    Given the origins of computing in the coding and decoding of messages, it’s fair to say that the heritage of encryption is as noteworthy as what we now call IT. Indeed the principles of algorithmic codification of data, and the maths behind them, go back way beyond the illustrious efforts of Alan Turing and his ilk in the Second …

    Desktop Management 19 Apr 2010, 11:12

  • PARIS hacked Canon test (almost) runs on rails

    PowerShot powers down mid-shoot

    A break in the dismal spring weather yesterday allowed the Reg's Paper Aircraft Released into Space (PARIS) team to run an outdoor test on the main payload Canon PowerShot A560. The camera has been given the Canon Hack Development Kit treatment which allows us to run a BASIC script intervalometer, tweaked by our very own …

    PARIS 19 Apr 2010, 11:13

  • Obama 'deep space' Mars plans in Boeing booster bitchslap

    Megacorp sees Elon Musk/prez chumship threat?

    Brobdingnagian US aerospace firm Boeing has more or less openly condemned the revised Obama plan for the US space programme, under which no decision on a heavy-lift rocket will be taken until 2015. The space megacorp seems worried at the close relationship between the President and upstart startup rocket firm SpaceX. I'm …

    Space 19 Apr 2010, 11:45

  • Google opens alphabetti spaghetti with refined spelling in search

    Web queries for an illiterate age

    Google has tweaked its search engine to speed up queries for users who are prone to spelling mishaps. Mountain View said on Friday that it had made three enhancements to help web surfers input their searches more quickly and easily. It has plumped up the automatic correction of misspelled search words to include 31 languages …

    Applications 19 Apr 2010, 12:34

  • Adobe bakes secure P2P into Flash

    Group conferences and gaming - or even P2P radio?

    The P2P arms race is warming up, with Adobe adding secure P2P communications to its latest beta version of Flash, 10.1. The addition of Adobe's closed RTMFP (Real Time Media Flow Protocol) gives developers the ability to stream data to endpoints without going through a central server. Flash has already had P2P support as part …

    Applications 19 Apr 2010, 12:39

  • Epic Fail: How the photographers won, while digital rights failed

    What went wrong?

    How did the music business end up with a triumph with the new Digital Economy Act? How did photographers, whose resources were one laptop and some old fashioned persuasion, carry an unlikely and famous victory? How did the digital rights campaigners fail so badly? Back in January, a senior music business figure explained to me …

    Government 19 Apr 2010, 12:48

  • Palm hands out golden handcuffs

    Would you stick with Palm for quarter of a mil?

    Palm has started handing out golden handcuffs to the key executives who've not already jumped ship, in what could be the run up to an acquisition announcement. One key executive who's already plunged overboard is Michael Abbott - the man credited, in large part, with creating WebOS. Michael Abbott's last day will be next week …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2010, 13:02

  • Discovery landing rained off

    Back to Earth tomorrow

    NASA has waved off today's planned landing of space shuttle Discovery due to cloud and rain at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery's STS-131 mission to the International Space Station will now end tomorrow, either at Kennedy or Edwards Air Force Base. The first Kennedy landing opportunity is at 12:33 GMT. STS-131 saw specialists …

    Space 19 Apr 2010, 13:12

  • Samsung wins 20nm process flash race

    Leaves Toshiba and IMFT in the dust

    Surprise, surprise - Samsung has won a game of flash leapfrog and is producing a 20nm part way ahead of Toshiba and IMFT. Smaller flash memory processes mean more flash chips can fit on a wafer, lowering their individual cost. It also means that a given device can be loaded up with more flash capacity in the same space, so a …

    Storage 19 Apr 2010, 13:25

  • Trojan poses as Google Chrome extension

    Cybercrooks start to target Google's browser

    Miscreants have created a Trojan that poses as a Google Chrome extension. Spammed messages attempt to dupe prospective marks into trying an add-on that "helps you better organise your documents received in your email". Interested parties are pointed towards a counterfeit Google Chrome Extensions page, which offers a malware …

    Malware 19 Apr 2010, 13:42

  • Sony's PS3 firmware update shows how retailers can be exposed

    No compensation from manufacturers

    Retailers face payouts to consumers that they will not be able to reclaim from manufacturers when software updates disable products' functions, an expert has warned. Consumer law protects the buyers of goods if their functions change, but retailers generally cannot pass those claims on to the device makers who made the change …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 14:05

  • HDS takes on Cisco/EMC with unified computing platform

    Premature announcement?

    Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is taking on the suppliers of integrated IT stacks by offering its own unified compute platform, comprising servers, storage, networking and orchestration software. The unified compute platform offering will be available to order as single 19-inch rack entities, and use Hitachi server blades, USP-V …

    Servers 19 Apr 2010, 14:15

  • Virus floors Russian-Chinese automated border

    Thousands stranded in travel chaos

    Hundreds of Russian tourists were stranded in the Chinese border city of Heihe on Sunday after a computer virus toppled an automated border control system. The border crossing was closed until Monday morning, stranding an estimated 2,000 Russians in the process, as a result of an unidentified malware infection, news agency RIA …

    Malware 19 Apr 2010, 14:41

  • 'al-Qaeda suicide cat' sends US Iraq war robots out of control

    Feline saboteur 'fried everything' at command base

    Control over heavily armed US war robots fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan was lost last year after a cat climbed into machinery at an American command base and "fried everything", a US officer has confirmed. The news comes from Colonel Grant Webb, describing technical problems at Creech Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, Nevada …

    Science 19 Apr 2010, 14:44

  • eBay shill bid scammer convicted

    Minibus man falls foul of consumer protection laws

    Paul Barrett, a minibus hire firm boss from Stanley, County Durham, has been convicted of bidding against items he was selling on eBay in order to drive up final prices. Barrett, 39, was found guilty of ten offences under consumer protection laws passed in 2008 and 2009 to bring UK law up to European Union standards. He …

    Law 19 Apr 2010, 14:48

  • Microsoft will fix it for you

    Click, click, fixed

    Microsoft has opened up a repair shop online to identify and fix common software problems in Windows PCs. Currently in beta, Fix It Center consists of a client that you download onto your PC and an online option that enables you to manage multiple computers from a single location on the Internet. A library of troubleshooters …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 14:51

  • Cyberspace isn't a place - Irish Judge

    Creators' rights are human rights, says Court

    An Irish Judge has upheld the right of a creator to protect his creations as a fundamental human right. In a scathing and occasionally lyrical ruling, Judge Peter Charleton also pointed out the internet is merely one communication tool of many, and not "an amorphous extraterrestrial body with an entitlement to norms that run …

    Law 19 Apr 2010, 14:56

  • Cisco (finally) acquires Norwegian video conferencer

    Tandberg borged

    At long last, Cisco has completed its acquisition of Norwegian video conferencing outfit Tandberg. On Monday, the networking behemoth said that it had completed its "voluntary" offer for Tandberg and that it has launched a compulsory acquisition for the company's remaining shares. Following the completion of the compulsory …

    Business 19 Apr 2010, 16:47

  • HP Networking emerges

    ProCurve and 3COM brands to disappear

    HP has announced a new HP Networking brand, under it which it will offer an edge-to-core set of sub-brands: the A Series; E Series; V Series; and S Series products. The ProCurve and 3Com brands will go away. In a webcast today, HP EVP and general manager for enterprise servers, storage and networking David Donatelli said that …

    Servers 19 Apr 2010, 17:03

  • Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

    Review Classic territory

    Sam Fisher's sixth videogame outing, and his first in almost four years, marks a further refinement of the core principles of the Splinter Cell franchise. The real-world credibility provided by Clancy's endorsement remains intact, as does Sam's modus operandi of infiltrate, interrogate and assassinate. Even the story, although …

    reghardware 19 Apr 2010, 17:56

  • Network Solutions customers hit by mass hack attack

    Second mystery outbreak in a week

    Network Solutions' security team is battling a mysterious attack that has silently infected a "huge" number of the websites it hosts with malicious code. The mass compromise affects sites running WordPress, Joomla, and plain-vanilla HTML, according to reports here and here from Securi Security and Stop Malvertising. Many of the …

    Security 19 Apr 2010, 18:11

  • 'iPhone 4G' found on floor of bar

    Updated Photos from a Jobsian future

    The next-generation iPhone will have a new flat-back design, front- and back-facing cameras, a MicroSIM slot, a larger battery, and a higher-resolution display - according to a spate of photo-enriched rumors flooding the intertubes. Over the weekend, Engadget published photos of what it claims to be an iPhone 4G prototype that …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2010, 19:12

  • Ethernet borgs RDMA from InfiniBand

    Rocky protocol means 10 GE is gonna fly now

    The InfiniBand Trade Association, the champion of the InfiniBand protocol, has announced that after a year and a half of development, it's releasing the spec for its technological crown jewels - for use in its most notable rival, Ethernet. There are a number of things that keep InfiniBand networks relevant in a world …

    Data Networking 19 Apr 2010, 19:18

  • Floating security tools span sky of clouds

    From Amazon to the apps formerly know as SaaS

    Layer 7 Technologies - an outfit that handles security for XML web services and what the world now calls clouds - has introduced a new collection of tools for securing and managing sky-high infrastructure and applications. On Monday, the Canada-based company introduced a family of products dubbed CloudSpan, and it spans (just …

    Security 19 Apr 2010, 20:51

  • Microsoft cracks open Windows cloud management service

    It's not a Windows 7 upgrade sweetener. Really

    Microsoft has betaed a cloud-based PC management service for businesses with a heavy emphasis on Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. On Monday, the company Monday unveiled a limited beta of Intune, for monitoring and managing security policies and tracking licenses and compliance on PCs running Windows. The service targets …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2010, 21:03

  • Oracle puts a JRockit under its cloud play

    BEA. Oracle. Complete.

    Oracle has updated its cloud infrastructure play with data-center technology that puts Java on the metal. On Monday, the database giant said that WebLogic Server can now run on Oracle VM without an operating system thanks to a piece of software called JRockit Virtual Edition. The combination is available in a new suite called …

    Software 19 Apr 2010, 21:22

  • Oracle charges $90 for Sun's free ODF plug-in

    The price of open docs on Microsoft Office

    Oracle is now charging $90 for the free Sun plug-in that teaches Microsoft Office how to use the latest open document format. As noticed by The H, if you visit the home of the Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office, there's still a big red button that says you can "Get it Now. Free." But if you actually click on that button, …

    Applications 19 Apr 2010, 22:55

  • IBM profits out-climb sales in Q1

    UK soars like a BRIC

    Maybe the worst of the economic meltdown is over, even if we still need to send some people who helped create it to jail. After Wall Street closed today, IBM reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2010, and in just about every product category and geography, Big Blue showed sequential growth at constant currency …

    Business 19 Apr 2010, 23:12

  • Feds bust website that catered to identity thieves

    CallService.biz goes dark

    Federal prosecutors have brought felony charges against an Eastern European man for running a website that allegedly helped thousands of criminals exploit stolen financial information. In an indictment unsealed Monday, prosecutors in Manhattan charged Dmitry M. Naskovets with creating and running CallService.biz. The online …

    Crime 19 Apr 2010, 23:15