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24th May 2010 Archive

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  • Another Flash-only NAS? Come on in

    Solid Access UNAS makes it a bit crowded in here

    Two's company but three is becoming a crowd: Solid Access has launched a NAND flash-only NAS storage product, the UNAS 100, offering 300,000 IOPS and 1,000MB/sec bandwidth. This joins Nimbus Data Systems' S-Class and WhipTail, with its Racerunner Virtual Desktop XLR8R, in offering a flash-only storage array at reasonable …

    Storage 24 May 07:02

  • Wallace & Gromit rouse Atlantis crew

    Shuttle undocked, prepares to return home

    Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station yesterday, following the crew's successful completion of their STS-132 mission tasks. During three spacewalks, mission specialists Steve Bowen, Michael Good and Garrett Reisman swapped out six nickel-hydrogen battery units on the station's Port 6 truss, as …

    Space 24 May 07:40

  • No refunds for ID card pioneers

    Paid for a card? Tough

    The government is set to refuse refunds to people who have forked out good money for ID cards. There will be a bill to abolish the cards, along with electoral and parliamentary reform - a move to equally-populated constituencies and to the Alternative Vote system - in the Queen's Speech tomorrow. But thousands of people …

    Government 24 May 07:43

  • Understanding your information assets

    Lab What are you are trying to solve?

    Information is power, right? Well, just how powerful must most organisations feel today, given the amount of information they are packing? The immediate irony is that the opposite is generally true – we create data with gay abandon, but our ability to keep tabs on everything that we create is showing itself to be increasingly …

    Platform Evolution 24 May 08:42

  • Brit honeybees crawl through rotten winter

    One in six hives lost

    British honeybees have survived the coldest winter in 31 years with losses of one in six hives - higher than the natural rate but a marked improvement over previous years. According to the Telegraph, 2008-09 saw one fifth of hives wiped out. The previous year did for 30 per cent of colonies. Regionally, the north of England …

    Biology 24 May 08:51

  • Xyratex no-go for bit-patterned media

    Lithography economics to blame

    Xyratex thinks heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) will be the follow-on technology to perpendicular magnetic recording for the hard disk drive industry. Harold Lehon, an exec VP and general manager covering hard disk drive (HDD) capital equipment at Xyratex, thinks lithography cost issues will prevent bit-patterned media …

    Storage 24 May 08:56

  • I Married a Monster from ISO 9000

    Stob We're getting harried in the morning

    We had our quality audit the other week. Its cadences seemed curiously familiar. The solemnisation of the quality system The service is traditionally held in the offices of a software house, as a St Audit's day substitute for matins. The congregation are gathered in the programmers' kitchenette, sipping coffee. Opening …

    Verity Stob 24 May 09:02

  • BT hooks up SMS hubbing

    I'm too texty. And tardy

    BT's Global Services has signed up Tyntec to provide SMS hub servers for network operators too lazy to sign distribution deals with each other. BT already provides signalling services, and carries voice traffic, for fixed and mobile operators around the world, but now the company has added SMS hubbing to the range in the solid …

    Mobile 24 May 09:19

  • Hitachi Maxell demos 50TB capacity LTO-class tape

    Perpendicular magnetic recording comes to tape

    Hitachi Maxell has demonstrated a 50TB capacity LTO-class tape using perpendicular magnetic recording technology. This is 400 per cent more than the raw capacity of the highest-capacity tape on the LTO roadmap, the 12.8TB LTO-8. Hard disk drives have used perpendicular magnetic recording for some years and its limitations are …

    Storage 24 May 09:29

  • Newzbin code leak could lead to return of Usenet indexer

    'Hardy fu*kin' har', says Mr White

    A clone site of Newzbin could be winging its way onto the interwebs soon, after its source code was stolen. Just last week the Usenet indexer went titsup due to legal action from the Motion Picture Association of America. Not long after that Newzbin admins confirmed in a blog post that the code had unsurprisingly been leaked …

    Music and Media 24 May 09:38

  • X2 triple-twirly speedcopter approaching 180 knots

    Goes faster by slowing all its whirlers down

    The X2 triplex speed-copter prototype, gradually building up speed in test flights, is expected to fly at 180 knots this week. The machine has already clocked 168 knots (over 190 mph), a good bit faster than most regular choppers can manage*. Turning heads. Flight International reports that the Sikorsky prototype is shortly …

    Science 24 May 09:39

  • HP recalls 54,000 laptop batteries

    Scope of past recalls expanded

    HP has asked owners of dozens of models of laptop to return the machines' batteries just in case said power packs go foom. The recall follows a similar programme put in place a year ago and comes after HP "received 38 additional reports of batteries that overheated and ruptured resulting in 11 instances of minor personal …

    reghardware 24 May 09:56

  • HP exec confirms WebOS tablet

    But Palm OS won't go into netbooks

    HP's attempt to out-iPad the iPad will indeed be based on Palm's WebOS, a company executive has revealed. Alleged insiders have said as much already, but this is the first time a staffer has gone on record with the information. According to Monty Wong, VP of PCs at HP's Taiwan operation, WebOS will be used in smartphones and …

    reghardware 24 May 10:12

  • School IT quango to be expelled

    Dunces' caps all round at Becta

    Becta, the education IT procurement quango, is to be scrapped as part of the new government's £6.2bn cuts this year, announced by George Osborne this morning. Schools are expected to get more control over their technology purchases as a result. Becta did not buy computers and software for schools, but instead drew up framework …

    Government 24 May 10:14

  • Eset slips on Comdom to stop spam emissions

    Suited and booted

    Slovak anti-virus firm Eset has acquired local anti-spam firm Comdom Software for an undisclosed amount. Eset hopes the deal, announced Monday, will improve its pre-existing Smart Security security suite technology by allowing customers to be more priapic proactive in blocking junk mail. The move is part of a long-running …

    Spam 24 May 10:15

  • What does this button do?

    Blog Desktop imaging lessons learned

    All software is designed to deal with a specific problem. In the case of the current set of articles that problem is desktop deployment. If multiple different developers attempt to solve the same problem, then chances are good that they will run into the same obstacles. Different developers will have different approaches …

    Desktop Mgmt Blog 24 May 10:21

  • Nuke fans, climate agnostics gain ground

    Poll shows treehuggers dwindling

    Climate agnostics now outnumber true believers who believe radical action is required for the first time, according to a YouGov poll. The number of people who acknowledge scientific opinions differ has risen from 25 to 33 per cent, while the number who believe global warming is "a serious and urgent problem and radical steps …

    Environment 24 May 10:48

  • Copernicus reburied with full Catholic honours

    'Science and faith can be reconciled'

    The remains of Nicolaus Copernicus were reburied on Saturday, with the Polish Catholic church out in force to honour the man whose heliocentric theory of the solar system didn't go down too well with the 16th century Vatican. Jozef Kowalczyk, the papal nuncio and recently appointed Primate of Poland, led mass in the cathedral …

    Space 24 May 10:50

  • iPads in short supply as tablets take off

    Empty shelves vindicate Apple's vision

    IDC reckons 7.6 million tablets will be sold during 2010, rising to 46 million come 2014, which explains why the Apple stores seem to be bereft of iPads these days. That's devices in the tablet form factor: no keyboard and no Windows OS and a stylus-or-finger-driven interface, which could include Apple's iPad and its imitators …

    PCs & Chips 24 May 10:59

  • Ten Essential... Gaming Mice

    Product Round-up Choose your weapons

    Many gamers make do with an ordinary mouse, but there are dozens of the devices designed specifically with gameplay in mind. Some are pricey, others almost as cheap as a standard mouse, but whether you’re happy paying through the nose, or trying to stick to a budget, it’s always good to know if you’re getting your money’s worth …

    reghardware 24 May 11:02

  • Samsung brings Bada phone to Blighty

    Wave ships

    Samsung has said that its first Bada-based smartphone, the Wave, has begun shipping to UK telcos, paving the way for its imminent availability to phone buyers. Bada is Samsung's new smartphone OS and the product it's using to attempt to emulate the success Apple's iPhone has experienced as an apps platform. Samsung said it …

    reghardware 24 May 11:02

  • Scripted installs? So yesterday

    Blog WINNERs know imaging is the future

    Comparing software products can be approached in many ways. Different organizations have different concerns. For some money is a major factor, for others support or the richness of an application’s feature set. Everyone wants the moon on a stick for $24.99, but in the end we will all eventually compromise. When looking at any …

    Desktop Mgmt Blog 24 May 11:04

  • HP to plunk WebOS onto tablet

    The alternative's alternative

    HP will be producing a WebOS-based tablet, to be on the shelves in October along with applications, but there will not be a notebook version. The news comes from HP Taiwan, as reported by Digitimes, which reveals that HP reckons notebooks need Windows but consumers will be more forgiving of a tablet-based device which will be …

    Mobile 24 May 11:10

  • HP loses massive bank contract

    Shortlist of two for Bank of Ireland deal

    HP has been removed from the shortlist of runners for a Bank of Ireland services contract. The deal was won by HP in 2004 when it described the $600m, seven-year deal as Ireland's largest ever IT services contract. But HP is not being considered for renewal of the contract. Instead the Bank of Ireland is considering bids from …

    Channel Register 24 May 11:16

  • Secret US spaceplane spotted in orbit by hobbyists

    Mysterious 'black' roboshuttle located - for now

    Amateur astronomers believe they have located the X-37B US military unmanned spaceplane, which was launched into orbit on a classified mission a month ago. We now know where, but not why or what. According to the authoritative skygazers' site Heavens-Above, the X-37B is in an orbit angled up 40 degrees from the Equator, …

    Space 24 May 11:33

  • Video smutware attack returns to Facebook

    Of course I'm too security-conscious to fall for ooh look bewbs

    Facebook users were hit for the second time in only a week by a video-themed malware attack last weekend. The latest assault involved the posting of a fake video to profiles entitled "distracting beach babes" that appeared under the guise of a post by one of a targeted user's friends on the social networking site. The messages …

    Malware 24 May 11:37

  • Capita immediately suffers over government cuts

    Share price tumbles

    Shares in the outsourcing giant Capita are being offloaded in response to the new government's first round of cuts. At time of writing the firm is trading down almost two and a half per cent at 780.5p, in a market down only half a per centage point. Capita investors have reacted gloomily to the Treasury's announcement this …

    Channel Register 24 May 12:04

  • Zappos.com's little sister loses $1.6m in pricing cockup

    Handbags at dawn going, going, gone for $49.95 or less

    A sister website of online shoe retailer Zappos.com lost $1.6m on Friday morning when a pricing engine blunder mistakenly switched some of the company's product line to being available for no more than $49.95 a pop. Over the weekend 6pm.com coughed to the embarrassing technical glitch, in which it confessed that customers had …

    IT Director 24 May 12:11

  • Massachusetts man in vacuum marinade shocker

    RoTM Sausage-seasoning machine sucks up cleaner

    A Massachusetts sausage factory cleaner had a lucky escape after a sausage-seasoning machine "somehow activated" and attempted to dine on its victim, Salem News reports. Police reports said the unnamed man was cleaning inside a "a vacuum-type cylinder" which "draws marinade into the meat" at the DiLuigi Sausage Co in Danvers. …

    Rise of the Machines 24 May 12:14

  • Huge Indiana Jones rumbling Moon billiard potted in crater

    Pic Lunar Juggernaut threat - cause of Clangers' extinction?

    A gigantic rumbling stone ball as big as a three-storey house has thundered across the surface of the moon, smashing through a crater wall before coming to rest deep in the lunar pockmark's interior. In the end the Clangers' lids just weren't strong enough. The lunar juggernaut's epic career of destruction is revealed in …

    Space 24 May 12:29

  • T-Mobile nixes US developer program

    Partner Network not working

    Operators have recently scored some key points in the battle to control the mobile apps experience, but T-Mobile USA is letting the side down, closing down its two-year-old developer program, Partner Network. Many large carriers are trying to create their own applications platforms and stores, hoping to remain the primary …

    Developer 24 May 12:31

  • Facebook boss admits privacy 'errors' and promises revamp

    Simpler controls coming, promises serial privacy offender

    Facebook boss Mark 'I'm CEO… bitch' Zuckerberg is seeking to soften user anger over privacy erosion with an admission that the social networking site has made some mistakes. Using an op-ed piece in Monday's Washington Post as a soapbox, Zuckerberg has promised to simplify the site's increasingly complex privacy controls and …

    Music and Media 24 May 12:41

  • IBM spends a billion on AT&T unit

    Sterling Commerce worth dollars

    IBM is buying Sterling Commerce from AT&T for $1.4bn (£972m). Sterling makes middleware and business integration software as well as products to help companies deal with multi-channel selling. Sterling's customer list includes comms companies, like AT&T, to financial services, retail, logistics and distribution and …

    Applications 24 May 13:48

  • Halo:Reach release date released

    Spartan and on and on

    Halo: Reach will go on sale on 14 September, Microsoft has revealed. The latest installment in the saga is geared up for Xbox Live multiplayer gaming, pitching squads of players against the finest the Covenant can throw at them. The Aliens' goal: Earth. Only you stand in their way, etc, etc. The Bungie-developed game will …

    reghardware 24 May 14:21

  • The cat ate my torrents: ISOHunt founder earns injunction

    Freetards' friend Fung feels legal fist

    ISOHunt founder Gary Fung's insistence on pandering to freetards has again cost him dear. Last week his appeal case earned him a permanent injunction, including possible jail time if he breaches the order. Fung was appealing against a suit originally filed by Hollywood (Columbia Pictures is the named plaintiff) against his …

    Music and Media 24 May 14:41

  • Atlantis spacewalkers snapped through shuttle windows

    Pic Fetching photo reveals classified US space writing tech

    NASA has released a fine snap of astronauts Michael Good (left) and Garrett Reisman, caught on camera through the aft flight deck windows of space shuttle Atlantis during last Friday's third STS-132 mission spacewalk at the International Space Station: However, the sharp-eyed among you will note that the agency has …

    Space 24 May 14:49

  • Bolt browser brings HTML 5 to J2ME

    And Facebook integration too

    The latest version of Bitstream's Bolt browser adds HTML 5 audio and video, tabbed browsing and Facebook to any Java-capable handset. Version 2.1 is now available to download from Bolt's web site, with added support for popular video streaming sites including the BBC and YouTube, as well as Facebook integration and its very …

    Mobile 24 May 15:15

  • Intel intros latest thin'n'light laptop chips

    ULV update for Core i3, i5 and i7

    Intel has announced the release of 32nm Core processors for thin'n'light laptops, allowing all of us MacBook Air fans the hope of a major update in the not-too-distant future. On the list we have the 1.2GHz Core i3-330UM, the 1.2GHz i5-430UM, the 1.2GHz i5-540UM and the 1.33GHz i7-660UM. All four contain two cores and …

    reghardware 24 May 15:19

  • Viacom vs YouTube spat slathered in F-words

    Poetry is no place for a heart that's a whore

    Media giant Viacom and Google-owned video sharing site YouTube dished up some colourful court documents last Friday that showed how little love exists between the sparring pair. Google, for its part, asked the court to overlook the fact that some of its wonks labelled Viacom as "copyright bastards" and "a-holes", in what is …

    Music and Media 24 May 15:22

  • Red Dead Redemption

    Review Wild west wickedness

    The historical Wild West was very different from the fictional depiction of Spaghetti Westerns. Gunslingers rarely had the kill count they were credited with. Quick-draws were in reality spur-of-the-moment shootouts, with instigators often taking advantage of distraction or inattention. And dying in blaze of glory is pure …

    reghardware 24 May 15:28

  • BMC reveals 'free money' mainframe and DB2 tools

    Win just one for the zIIPer

    Mainframe shops that are counting their pennies are going to catch a financial break from one of the suppliers of performance monitoring and management tools for the box. BMC Software has reworked its various mainframe tools so that some of the code underlying them executes on IBM's specialty engines instead of on generic …

    Developer 24 May 16:00

  • Nokia! and! Yahoo! hook! up! over! Ovi!

    Exclamation mark manufacturers drop dead from exhaustion

    Nokia and Yahoo! have announced a conjoined offering, with Nokia's Ovi brand finding its way into Yahoo's services while Yahoo takes over Nokia's email and messaging services. It's not the first time the companies have worked together, but this time they've carved up the mobile application space between them to create a …

    Mobile 24 May 16:01

  • Two years later, Apple Safari still open to 'carpet-bombing'

    Unlike most 'sane' browsers

    After more than two years, Apple's Safari browser for Macs remains vulnerable to attacks that allow websites to litter a user's hard drive with thousands of malicious files. The "carpet bomb" vulnerability was publicly disclosed in May 2008 after members of Apple's security team said they didn't consider the quirk a security …

    Security 24 May 17:42

  • Novell puts Identity Management into beta

    Cloudy access, uncertain future

    In the wake of its BrainShare EMEA user and partner conference in Amsterdam last week, Novell has opened up the beta for the next iteration of its authentication middleware, Identity Manager 4. The future of Novell's identity and access management software business — and perhaps someone else's if Novell sells pieces of itself …

    Software 24 May 18:57

  • Windows 3.0 turns 20

    'Happy Birthday, Apple crusher'

    Windows 3.0, arguably Microsoft's first effective graphical user interface, turned 20 this past weekend. On May 22, 1990, Redmond introduced the 32-bit GUI (not an operating system - Win 3.0 ran on top of DOS), and by doing so, it put the fear of Gates into any Apple fanboi honest enough to see the 16-color writing on the …

    Operating Systems 24 May 19:00

  • Microsoft fills Outlook crack with Apachesource

    .PST opens up

    Microsoft has created a pair of Apache-licensed open-source projects to crack open its ubiquitous Office suite. The company said the projects will let developers building non-Microsoft and non-Windows applications browse, read and extract emails, calendar, contacts and events information currently encased in Outlook's .pst …

    Developer 24 May 19:04

  • Man jailed for sex with donkey and horse

    22 months' porridge follows having of oats

    The 66-year-old man who in April pleaded guilty in Leicester Crown Court to charges of "buggery of a donkey between February 2 and February 5, 1999, and buggery of a horse between March 15 and 18, 2004", has been jailed for 22 months. Joseph Squires - of "no stable address" - also admitted two charges of damaging property, " …

    Bootnotes 24 May 19:05

  • NASA telescope gazes into heart and soul of universe

    Sees unseeable nebulae and asteroids

    NASA telescopes have captured stunning images of two star-producing nebulae as their solar winds blow cosmic gas and dust across vast reaches of space more than 6,000 light years from Earth. The photos were taken by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, space telescope, which was launched in December on an eight- …

    Space 24 May 20:56

  • Google open codec 'not open,' says OSI man

    Net video play faces 'serious questions'

    A board member with the Open Source Initiative (OSI) — the organization that approves open source licenses — has warned that there are "some serious questions" surrounding Google's swashbuckling efforts to create an open and royalty-free codec for web video. Hoping to defend the VP8 codec against patent attack, Google has open …

    Developer 24 May 22:54

  • Cray-1 resurfaces in pieces on eBay

    The stories it could tell. But then it would have to kill you

    What are the odds that two different sellers on both sides of the Pond would find themselves peddling some of the processing modules of the original Cray-1 vector supercomputer? The probability would be 1. A chap in the United Kingdom put up one of the original Cray-1 gate array modules on the UK eBay site for £550 on May 17 …

    HPC 24 May 23:49