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27th May 2010 Archive

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  • Can Geoff Barrall help rescue Overland?

    Comment It's down to the product squad now

    Overland Storage is still walking the tightrope. Its share price is back down where it was when a reverse stock split took place to evade the jaws of a Nasdaq delisting trap ($2.00). It's not down so low as to threaten its Nasdaq listing again but since April 9 it seems headed that way. CEO Eric Kelly has refinanced the …

    Storage 27 May 05:02

  • HTML5 'unhinged from reality,' say Javascripters

    Apple, Google and video killed the mark-up star

    Javascripters are trying to rescue HTML5 from video junkies and hypesters, saying the term is being misused - just like AJAX and Web 2.0. Endorsements by Apple and Google for the as-yet-unfinished HTML5 have turned this next iteration of the web's mark-up spec into the buzzword of the moment, and according to blog post from …

    Music and Media 27 May 06:02

  • Samsung Monte smartphone

    Review High-end pretender

    Samsung says the Monte provides the style and performance of a high-end handset at an affordable price. Oh really? Sure, the headline features are quite impressive. HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, motion sensor, an emphasis on social networking with support for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Bebo. There's MS Exchange ActiveSync support for …

    reghardware 27 May 07:02

  • SGI rolls out (more) data center containers

    Three ICE Cubes shy of full tray

    Containerized data centers are like blade servers. Both are ideas that seem to have obvious technical merit, and both are taking a lot more time to go mainstream than many had expected. Undaunted by the slow uptake of its ICE Cube containers, Silicon Graphics still thinks there is money in dense-pack IT gear crammed into 20 and …

    HPC 27 May 07:02

  • BBC iPlayer to run on iPads. Eventually

    'We're not wedded to Flash'

    Yesterday the BBC announced version 3 of its iPlayer catch-up service, which allows viewers to stream programmes for up to seven days following their initial broadcast, or to download them to keep for up to 30 days on supported platforms. The new version adds social media integration, linking to Facebook, Twitter and Windows …

    Applications 27 May 07:53

  • Galactic pile-ups feed supermassive energy output

    Violent collisions 'light up' black holes

    NASA's Swift satellite appears to have confirmed one reason why a small percentage of supermassive black holes throw out vastly elevated levels of energy: it's provoked by violent collisions between galaxies. NASA explains that one per cent of such black holes - weighing in at "between a million and a billion times the Sun's …

    Space 27 May 08:31

  • Europe exposes new data share deal with US

    We give you our data, you give us some privacy

    The European Commission has issued its draft mandate - setting the ground rules to negotiate with the US to create a data sharing agreement. This must now be approved by the European Council before negotiations can begin. US authorities got access to European finance records and more detailed information on airline passengers …

    Government 27 May 08:53

  • Information versus the silos

    Lab IT’s raison d’être

    The idea that ‘information is important and we want to do more useful things with it’ transcends technology by virtue of it having been true long before IT vendors wanted to talk about it. However, technology does have a key role to play in helping us exploit the information in our businesses, not least because of its ability …

    Platform Evolution 27 May 09:02

  • Cops cuff coke-smuggling lingerie model

    'Charlie Angels' boss detained in Buenos Aires

    Argentinian cops have cuffed the Colombian former lingerie model accused of running a "Charlie Angels" drug-smuggling racket. As we previously reported, Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 30, was crowned her native land's Queen of Coffee in 2000, but allegedly following a relationship with a Mexican drug lord dubbed "The Monster", …

    Bootnotes 27 May 09:03

  • BT quotes pensioner £150,000 to get broadband

    Does that come with a free Home Hub? No? Oh

    BT has quoted a pensioner £150,000 to install a broadband line to her home in rural Wales. The national telco contacted Beverley McCartney, who lives in Salem, Carmarthenshire, last week, the BBC reports. It had previously told her it could not connect her home, but was pleased to say it now could for the bargain price of £ …

    Telecoms 27 May 09:31

  • Acer CEO whips out iPad rival

    Regular e-book reader too

    Acer has shown off an Android-based iPad alternative. CEO Gianfranco Lanci whipped out the 7in colour-screen gadget at a press event in Beijing today and promised to bring the unnamed product to market in Q4. Oddly named website Shufflegazine took a snap of Lanci and Acer's new baby. Acer's tablet and friend Credit: …

    reghardware 27 May 10:06

  • German bank robbers in Italian Job moment

    You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off. No, seriously

    We in the El Reg Bootnotes secretariat need little excuse to make reference to classic Brit movie The Italian Job, so it's with great pleasure that we bring you news of German bank robbers who, in attempting to blow the doors off a rural bank, managed to destroy the entire building. The highly-skilled explosives experts …

    Bootnotes 27 May 10:12

  • X-51 hypersonic scramjet test: Flameout at Mach 5?

    Boffins still 'ecstatic' after 3-minute strato-streak

    US government aerospace agencies have achieved the world's first hypersonic scramjet flight using hydrocarbon fuel. The test did not go perfectly, but further flights will follow; organisers said they were "ecstatic" with progress thus far. Shockwave riding supersonic-combustion-ramjet hypersonic hotness. The X-51A " …

    Space 27 May 10:21

  • Nokia updates N900 firmware

    But breaks Ovi Store compatibility for older versions

    Nokia has released new system software for its Maemo-based N900 smartphone and it's a mandatory update if you want your N900 to remain compatible with the Ovi Store. The new release, PR 1.2 - aka version 10.2010.19-1 - includes a number of tweaks and improvements, including Skype and Google Talk video chat, Facebook instant …

    reghardware 27 May 10:24

  • Teletext licence holder fined for killing service early

    Daily Mail & General Trust ordered to pay £225,000

    Media watchdog Ofcom has fined Daily Mail & General Trust £225,000 for withdrawing the Teletext TV service prematurely. Ofcom said in a statement that DMGT, which was the holder of the public teletext service licence, had paid for the service to be covered from 2004 to 2014. However, the company - whose half-yearly report is …

    Music and Media 27 May 10:48

  • Facebook simplifies controls but continues exposing users

    Analysis Default settings flash entire internet

    Facebook was praised for simplifying its privacy controls on Wednesday, but critics say the moves fail to restore users' trust in the appropriate handling of their information. The social network unveiled a greatly simplified interface for controlling user privacy settings, hosted on a single page. The previous set-up, …

    Applications 27 May 11:03

  • HMRC mails wrong private info to 50,000 taxpayers

    New government, old data loss

    Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs apologised today for sending out private information to 50,000 tax credit recipients. One taxpayer who contacted The Register said: "We received our tax credit notice with our National Insurance details but on the back were two strangers' work, childcare and pay details." He then received a …

    Government 27 May 11:06

  • Queuing for an iPad? Why?

    Opinion Still like telly? Then you probably don't need one

    As the UK braces itself for tomorrow's iPad launch, one might wonder what the device is good for beyond providing entertainment during today's lacklustre TV shows. This evening the queues will start forming as fans chomp at the bit for the latest Apple bling. Tomorrow's news will no doubt be full of happy Apple customers being …

    PCs & Chips 27 May 11:18

  • Ballmer will not appear at Apple conference

    No Dancing with the Stars, either

    Update: Microsoft says that Steve Ballmer will not be appearing at Apple's WWDC Conference. "Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI," the company said in a post to Twitter. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will take a seven-minute segment of Steve …

    Operating Systems 27 May 11:27

  • UK.gov issues death warrant for ID cards

    Buh-bye now

    ID cards will be history within 100 days, the government said today as it published laws to destroy the scheme. The Home Office, for years tasked with promotion of the project under Labour, said it aims to pass the Identity Documents Bill before the Parliamentary recess starts in August. It is the first legislation introduced …

    Government 27 May 11:31

  • Site news: Track this forum

    Clipping service at your disposal

    This week we introduced "Track this Forum", a membership feature for commentards and lurkers on El Reg and reghardware forums. Take this example: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/05/26/captain_cyborg_cyberfud/ See the grey star? See "Track this forum"? Click the link and log-in to El Reg forums, if you haven't …

    Site News 27 May 11:37

  • The practicalities of unified comms implementation

    On-Demand Webcast Wise words from the implementers

    Earlier this week we published the first part of our Unified Comms video series. Today, in Part Two, we're looking at the practicalities of a unified comms implementation. Our end user guru, Darren Lloyd, from Newport City Homes is once again driving the proceedings and sharing the wisdom he’s gained from his recent, green …

    Unified Comms 27 May 11:58

  • Japanese police cuff Hentai smut scam suspects

    The long tentacle of the law

    Japanese police have arrested two men over suspected involvement in a Hentai-themed malware scam campaign. Oka Akira, 27, from Tokyo, and an unnamed 20-year-old are both suspected of defrauding “tens of thousands” of Japanese Yen from a minority of the 5,000 victims they exposed to malware, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports. Akira …

    Crime 27 May 11:59

  • Universal Tech MyXerver Pro MX3800

    Review World's first wireless Nas, apparently

    It was only a matter of time before someone thought of putting Wi-Fi connectivity into a network-attached storage (Nas) drive for small networks. Come to think of it, we must have thought of it at least three years ago, but at the end of last year, Universal Tech lay claim to being the first to bring the idea to market. Wi-Fi …

    reghardware 27 May 12:02

  • Contractors dodge ID cards axe

    Nice work if you can get it

    The two biggest contractors on the doomed ID cards scheme will escape any serious financial impact, as the government will not cancel their deals. With today's announcement that ID cards will be scrapped within 100 days, it's emerged CSC and IBM will simply have the scale of their tasks reduced. CSC is operating the 10-year …

    Government 27 May 12:41

  • Israelis build floating electric hover platform

    Only snag: Needs to be plugged in on the ground

    Israeli war-tech engineers are planning to build electrically driven hover platforms which would float like balloons tethered to ground- or vehicle-mounted energy sources by long power cables. Uh-oh! Power cut! Flight International reports that the machines have been dubbed electric tethered observation platforms (ETOPs), …

    Science 27 May 12:46

  • £15 a month for legal P2P?

    UK pirates mull options: Pay or defy?

    Over a quarter of file sharers would pay £14.50 a month for a legal P2P service, according to new survey of UK downloaders. A quarter also agreed with ISPs blocking web sites as a countermeasure against infringement. But around a third of pirates (34 per cent) reckoned that ISP threats would make no difference at all to their …

    Music and Media 27 May 12:56

  • Ye olde London comes to the iPhone

    Wayback machine for meatspace

    The Museum of London has launched a free iPhone application showing what London used to look like way before the iPhone was invented. Street Museum is a photographic database, linked to locations through Google maps and capable of overlaying on reality to provide a proper before-and-after look for those who'd prefer London …

    Applications 27 May 13:22

  • Honda CR-Z sporty hybrid e-car

    Review Miserly with fuel, entertaining to drive

    The three major Japanese car makers are taking a distinctly different approach to the imminent arrival of the electric car. Nissan has jumped in with both feet and will launch Leaf, its battery-powered e-car, at the end of the year. Toyota is putting its eggs in the true hybrid basket - its Prius is capable of both battery- and …

    reghardware 27 May 14:02

  • NetApp comes up trumps with fat annual profit

    I'm too sixy

    NetApp vindicated its middle-of-the-road virtualisation and cloud service provider stance with a sixfold increase in annual profits. The company is sticking to a core unified storage strategy, avoiding extensions of its product line into extreme scale-out NAS like Isilon, high-end enterprise storage like Symmetrix, or low-end …

    Storage 27 May 14:23

  • Google misses German regulator Street Car Wi-Fi data grab deadline

    Nein!

    Google has failed to hand over some data it inadvertently collected from Wi-Fi networks to German regulators. Earlier this month German prosecutors launched an investigation into the company’s interception of private Wi-Fi data, after Google admitted that its world-roving Street View cars had scooped up information sent over …

    Government 27 May 15:33

  • Android phones get free video calling

    Still no sign of a Fring business model

    A new version of identity-aggregation application Fring brings video calling to Android handsets, despite the company's ever-lacking business model. The new Fring client for Android has all the usual VoIP and messaging functions: aggregating identities from Skype, GoogleTalk and SIP-based telephony services, as well as ICQ, …

    Mobile 27 May 15:46

  • Mozilla sidesteps iPhone code ban with Firefox Home

    Firefox without the Firefox

    Mozilla won't submit a Firefox browser to Apple's iPhone App Store. It has no intention of taking its browser where "it's not wanted." But the open source outfit is developing an iPhone incarnation of Firefox Sync, the browser bookmark-syncing service formerly known as Weave. Mozilla has been exploring such a project for …

    Applications 27 May 18:01

  • Oracle kills AMD Opteron on Sun iron

    Sun volume server master plan gutted

    Oracle is abandoning AMD's Opteron processors, according to a person familiar with the company's server plans. The new owner of Sun Microsystems will not use the new Opteron 6100 and impending Opteron 4100 processors in future Sun Fire x64 servers, and all existing Opteron servers will be discontinued. Thus ends an Opteron …

    Servers 27 May 19:28

  • Apple picks death not compliance for open source iPhone game

    App Store flouts GPL

    Apple has removed an application from the iPhone App Store after the Free Software Foundation complained that the store's terms of service undermined the application's open source license. To the countless "inappropriate" apps Apple has ejected from its App Store, you can add GNU Go, a chess-like game that's open sourced under …

    Mobile 27 May 21:20

  • Windows, Linux propel Q1 server sales

    Unix boxes, mainframes stalled

    Sales of servers perked up considerably in the first quarter, according to statistics put together by IT market researcher IDC, with revenues at the factory level among server makers rising 4.7 per cent to $10.42bn. While that is arguably against a very easy compare, considering the dramatic downdraft of worldwide server …

    Servers 27 May 23:33