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23rd April 2010 Archive

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  • NHS computers hit by voracious, data-stealing worm

    Easily detected — but isn’t

    The UK’s National Health Service has been hit by a voracious, data-stealing worm that’s easily detected by off-the-shelf security software, according to researchers who directly observed the mass compromise. Researchers from anti-virus provider Symantec have been monitoring the Qakbot worm since last May and have documented its …

    Enterprise Security 23 Apr 00:42

  • Microsoft's 'record' quarter can't match Apple

    Windows 7 - it coulda been so much better

    If Microsoft hoped that reporting "record" quarterly results would send its stock skywards in Apple-like fashion, then it hoped in vain. On Thursday, the software giant announced fiscal-third-quarter revenues of $14.5bn, a 6.2 per cent leap from the same quarter last year, while net income rose 34.5 per cent to $4bn. Earnings …

    Financial News 23 Apr 04:22

  • Viewsonic ViewBook 130 ultra-slim laptop

    Review Wanted: killer feature

    The slimline design and silvery-grey finish of Viewsonic’s ViewBook will prompt inevitable comparisons with Apple’s MacBook Air - reviewed here. The ViewBook is only about half the price, though, so Viewsonic is obviously hoping to attract people that can’t manage the MacBook Air’s hefty price-tag. Viewsonic's Viewbook 130: …

    reghardware 23 Apr 07:02

  • EU Commission will overhaul procurement laws

    Europe wants more public-private partnerships

    The European Commission has announced a review of public procurement laws. The Commission said change was necessary to cope with new e-procurement practices and to respond to more demand for public-private partnerships. The Commission said that there was a need for greater flexibility in procurement rules and more speed in …

    Law 23 Apr 07:35

  • Server patching principles

    Workshop The nirvana process

    In the imperfect world we live in, patching stuff, be it desktops, software or servers is a fact of life. We do it or we risk being exposed to the latest security threat, missing out on new functionality or suffering performance degradation. We discussed desktop client patching over in the desktop management workshop. In this …

    Server Management 23 Apr 07:48

  • Brit astrophysical model scoops £1.1m at poker

    Liv Boeree whips out a lovely pair of fives

    A 25-year-old Brit astrophysics graduate, model and pro poker player has scooped the £1.1m European Poker Tour jackpot, the Sun reports. Liv Boeree saw off 1,240 rivals in the San Remo tournament, finally trumping Jakob Carlsson's ace high and a six with a pair of fives. She's now off to Sunday's EPT grand final in Monte Carlo …

    Bootnotes 23 Apr 08:13

  • Watchdog calls for Google break-up

    Urges DoJ to investigate

    A California-based consumer watchdog called, er... Consumer Watchdog is calling for a Department of Justice investigation into Google. The group, supported by mobile entrepreneur Simon Buckingham and lawyers for two price comparison websites, praised the DOJ for its action against Google Books and the FTC probe into the …

    Law 23 Apr 08:16

  • Western Digital laps Seagate

    Top dog in hard drive units

    Western Digital reported a stonking first 2010 quarter yesterday, with record revenues and unit shipments, passing Seagate in drive unit production numbers for the first time. Revenues for the quarter were $2.6bn, 66 per cent up or a billion dollars higher than the year-ago quarter. Net income was $400m, a massive jump from …

    Storage 23 Apr 09:02

  • Lufthansa offers iPhone 4G loser free beer

    Gray Powell invited to Munich to drown his sorrows

    German airline Lufthansa has invited iPhone 4G loser Gray Powell to Munich to drown his sorrows after the poor chap apparently left the next manifestation of the Jesus Phone in the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a "German Specialty Store and Beer Garden" in Redwood City, California. The airline's director of marketing and customer …

    Bootnotes 23 Apr 09:05

  • Morse confirms advanced takeover talks

    No mixed signals there

    Morse has confirmed to the London Stock Exchange that it is in talks which could lead to the sale of the reseller. The reseller and integrator confirmed it was in advanced talks but warned: "Shareholders should be aware that there is no certainty that an offer will be made." The deal would give Morse investors 51p for every …

    Channel Register 23 Apr 10:07

  • Vodafone launches snooping service

    Your call will be recorded - unless it's on an iPhone

    Vodafone is offering to record every conversation for companies interested in knowing what their employees are saying and to whom, but not if they've got an iPhone. Financial companies are gearing up for mobile phones to be added to the industry's recording requirement, with Vodafone being quick off the mark in launching a …

    Mobile 23 Apr 10:13

  • Buffalo punts portable Blu-ray box

    BD playback, recording on your laptop, anyone?

    Storage specialist Buffalo has unwrapped a portable Blu-ray Disc drive for all you laptop owners seeking BD playback. And for those of you wanting to back up 25GB or 50GB of data at a time, since the BR-PX68U2 is a 6x BD-R and BD-RE burner capable of handling both single- and dual-layer media. It'll also read and write the …

    reghardware 23 Apr 10:18

  • Koobface server pops up in China after HK takedown

    Whack-a-mole

    Security experts in Hong Kong last week succeeded in taking down a key component of the Koobface botnet, only to witness the system popping up in China. The Koobface FTP grabber component uploaded stolen FTP user names and passwords to the remote server, which was under the control of cybercrooks. These stolen login …

    Malware 23 Apr 10:19

  • US Airforce secret spaceplane launched successfully

    Other countries: Count your satellites

    The US Air Force successfully launched its pocket-size X-37B robot space plane into orbit last night, on a mission whose nature and duration remain classified. With the imminent departure of the Space Shuttle, the little wingship will soon be the only orbital craft capable of runway landing - and perhaps other things. The X- …

    Space 23 Apr 10:28

  • Will UC stop you being exposed?

    Workshop Trying the Emperor's news clothes for size

    Delving around the Web recently, I happened upon a very neat analogy in a couple of unrelated instances that really encapsulated exactly what Unified Communications (UC) had the potential to become. You know how the old fairytale goes, where an emperor is tricked into believing he is wearing exquisite robes far superior to …

    Unified Comms 23 Apr 10:52

  • BOFH: Forgive and forget

    Episode 4 And get some revenge too

    They say the secret to a good relationship is to be able to forgive and forget - and so I'm working hard on the forgiving bit with the PFY. He, for his part, is working on the forgetting - which I'm told is a perfectly normal by-product of ECT - even though a lot of private hospitals frown on the use of it unless it's …

    BOFH 23 Apr 11:02

  • Rugby league star pleads guilty to eBay ink scam

    Fake printer ink and game biz shut down

    Gareth Raynor, a former Great Britain rugby league player, pleaded guilty yesterday to 14 charges of fraud and counterfeiting. Raynor, 32, sold counterfeit ink cartridges for printers and fake game cartridges on eBay and other sites. He imported reconditioned second-hand cartridges from China and then re-wrapped them in …

    reghardware 23 Apr 11:11

  • Nazi soldiers pose for Red Army calendar

    Vets see red over anniversary gaffe

    Red Army vets of the Great Patriotic War were less than impressed when a calendar designed to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany featured some of the latter's troops proudly posing for the camera. The gaffe came to light when officials began to distribute posters to government …

    Bootnotes 23 Apr 11:24

  • YouTube dishes up online movie rentals - at a price

    It's not you, it's me

    YouTube has opened an online film rental store in the US, after it trialled the service in January. The Google-owned company is charging 99 cents to $3.99 a pop for its range of film rentals. YouTube gives customers between 24 and 72 hours to rent a movie from its store (US only). The ad broker tentatively tested out the …

    Music and Media 23 Apr 11:33

  • Dumb questions on server computing

    Lab Poll People make way too many assumptions

    You listen to some marketeers and it’s all so simple. Whatever form of server computing they are promoting is assumed to be the answer to everything. Back in the real world, servers are obviously used for all kinds of stuff, from running boring back office systems, through highly dynamic Web applications, to core activities …

    Platform Evolution 23 Apr 11:58

  • Canon EOS 550D DSLR

    Review The semi-pros' second camera?

    The arrival of Canon’s EOS 550D has been a rather pleasant surprise as, besides being a respectable 18.1Mp stills camera, it also shoots video at a quality that is comparable to the more expensive and technically superior EOS 7D. While the EOS 550D lacks two engines to power the data processing – so it can’t match the 7D’s …

    reghardware 23 Apr 12:01

  • Ex-Fujitsu boss demands probe into sacking

    Lawsuits all round

    The ousted president of Fujitsu, Kuniaki Nozoe, is increasing the pressure on his former employer by demanding to know why it has still not appointed an independent body to investigate his sacking. Nozoe played reporters a recording of the meeting with board members and advisers which resulted in his departure. He has …

    Financial News 23 Apr 12:20

  • Workers scared to befriend bosses on Facebook

    Careless updates cost prospects

    Three in four Facebook users avoid making friends with their boss through the site for fear that an off-hand remark might jeopardise their employment prospects. An online survey of 450 surfers, commissioned by net security firm F-Secure, found that 73 per cent were not "friends" with their boss. A similar 77 per cent said they …

    Music and Media 23 Apr 12:24

  • Picsel US workers sue directors over 'unpaid wages'

    We'll see you in court. Maybe

    US ex-employees of Picsel, the Glasgow-based mobile software company that went titsup last year, are suing former directors of the firm for allegedly misleading them into working for free. The five staff were employed by San Francisco-based Picsel Technologies Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of now-titsup Glasgow-based Picsel …

    Mobile 23 Apr 12:33

  • Small and mobile ISPs may avoid new filesharing laws

    Exclusive Rumours of the death of public Wi-Fi exaggerated

    Regulators are considering creating loopholes in the implementation of the Digital Economy Act to allow small, mobile and Wi-Fi ISPs to avoid its copyright enforcement regime. A suggested threshold system would take into account an ISP's size and the costs of compliance before imposing the Act's provisions against unlawful …

    Telecoms 23 Apr 13:25

  • 'Beauty with antimatter bottom' created out of pure energy

    Decayed nega-derrière explodes shortly afterwards

    Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle punisher ever assembled by the human race, say that experiments there are going well. In particular, they have managed to create out of pure energy a thing which they describe as a "beauty" featuring an antimatter bottom. Hold on, I don't understand …

    Physics 23 Apr 13:41

  • El Reg PARIS team fires up the GPS tracker

    Successful test of main payload locating unit

    It's all go at the El Reg Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) command headquarters, and we've just taken delivery of the GPS tracking device designed to enable us to recover the main payload. Our plan is to use an off-the-shelf tracking unit which reports its position via the mobile phone network. Of course, this won't …

    PARIS 23 Apr 13:43

  • Sky punts 'truly unlimited' 20Mb/s broadband

    No caps, traffic shaping or fair use policy, says ISP

    Sky is set to become the first broadband provider to offer free internet access for all customers at speeds of up to 20Mb/s, the satellite TV broadcaster claimed today. There's a catch: to qualify for the free package, called Sky Everyday Lite, users must be Sky TV subscribers and signed up to the firm's Sky Talk phone service …

    reghardware 23 Apr 13:50

  • Best Buy UK to flog electric cars, scooters and bikes

    The greening of Thurrock

    Best Buy is majoring on "Green Tech" in its first UK superstore. The Lakeside, Thurrock store opens on 30 April and will sell electric bicycles such as the GoCycle, Ultramotor, Metro and Moore & Large's iZip brands with prices starting at £399. Best Buy will also stock the Enertia electric motorbike from August and it will …

    reghardware 23 Apr 13:54

  • Palm denies it's up for sale

    We don't need no stinkin' new owners

    Palm's CEO has been busy telling the world that his company isn't up for sale, which is lucky as no one seems very interested in buying it. Jon Rubinstein, the CEO concerned, has told the Financial Times that he "believe[s] Palm can survive as an independent company" and that the company has "a plan that gets us to …

    Mobile 23 Apr 14:16

  • Security maven turns tables on fibbing police

    The server did not eat your video

    A computer security expert used his elite skills to turn the tables on Seattle Police who arrested him for doing nothing more than refusing to identify himself during a drunken street golf game in 2008. Eric Rachner, identified by The Seattle PI as a cyber security expert, fought the charges for obstructing a police officer, …

    Security 23 Apr 18:29

  • Microsoft wins big in Chinese piracy lawsuit

    Loser vows to fight on

    Microsoft has won its first major court battle against the use of unlicensed software by Chinese corporations - but the company it vanquished plans to fight back. The amount of damages that the Shanghai court awarded Redmond may be small - 2.17m yuan, or $318,000 - but the precedent is large. "This is the first case in which …

    Channel Register 23 Apr 19:21

  • Google engineering gaggle flees Facebook

    Updated 'When I complain about privacy, I use Google Buzz'

    A gaggle of Google engineers have expressed their displeasure with Facebook's latest effort to share your data with third-party sites, and many have gone so far as to deactivate their accounts. This includes the Delphic Oracle of the SEO world, Matt Cutts, who announced his Facebook deactivation with a post to Twitter. Cutts …

    ID 23 Apr 19:26

  • Verizon dubs sec researchers 'narcissistic vulnerability pimps'

    Updated In defense of full-disclosure

    In an official blog post, an employee in Verizon's Risk Intelligence unit has taken aim at researchers who disclose security flaws, calling them "Narcissistic vulnerability pimps" and comparing them to criminals. "Have you ever heard of a terrorist referred to as a 'demolition engineer?'" the unnamed author of the rant asked, …

    Security 23 Apr 19:51

  • Windows Server to ride upgrade wave

    Comment Steady as she goes

    As the revenue and shipment leader in the global server market, the Windows Server platform is arguably a good indicator of the health of the IT market. If that is the case, then it looks like the server market is on the mend - but it's not in any kind of a hurry. With one or more monopolies on the desktop (depending on how …

    Operating Systems 23 Apr 22:08

  • Adobe clutches chance to bury Steve Jobs 'hog' insult

    Apple in shock lifeline to Flash on Mac

    After calling Flash a "CPU hog," Steve Jobs has given Adobe the chance to live down this now famous insult. And Adobe is taking it. Steve Jobs also called Flash "buggy" and littered with security holes. And he summarily banned it from both the iPhone and the iPad - even when it's translated into Jobsian machine code. But with …

    Developer 23 Apr 22:41

  • Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - more than Flash envy

    MeeGo to phones, set-tops, and beyond

    2010 is proving to be a big year for Silverlight, Microsoft's cross-platform browser plug-in. "Four releases in two and a half years," said vice president Scott Guthrie at the launch of Silverlight 4.0 this month, and as Microsoft reveals more pieces of its strategy, the rationale for this energetic development is also …

    Developer 23 Apr 23:09

  • Website shares user credit cards with world+dog

    Blippy's overexposure

    A website that encourages people to share details of their online purchases with world+dog was caught exposing the complete credit card numbers of four of its users. Blippy is one of the more glaring examples of the ill-conceived social exhibitionist craze sweeping the web. On Friday, its users got a taste of that fad's dark …

    ID 23 Apr 23:29