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9th June 2010 Archive

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  • Mozilla man blasts Apple and Google for HTML5 abuse

    'Only Microsoft gets web standards'

    Mozilla open source evangelist Chris Blizzard has unloaded on both Apple and Google for abusing the HTML5 moniker, confusing netizens everywhere, and undermining the slow march towards truly open web standards. Blizzard is so peeved at Apple and Google that he even goes so far as to lavish praise on Microsoft for its belated …

    Developer 9 Jun 00:05

  • EMC steams ahead in storage software stakes

    Doing very nicely thank you

    IDC's latest ratings show EMC way out in front in the storage software race, with second-place Symantec slowing down and CommVault trying to break out of the pack. EMC was top with $696m revenues in the first quarter of this year, representing a 23 per cent share and a 13.7 per cent year-on-year gain. Symantec slipped back, …

    Storage 9 Jun 05:02

  • Microsoft releases fix for 'Pwn2Own' security bug in IE

    34 holes plugged

    Microsoft on Tuesday patched at least 34 security holes in a wide range of software, including a bug in its Internet Explorer browser that fetched a researcher $10,000 at a hacker contest in April. In all, Microsoft released 10 bulletins, three of which were rated “critical” because they allowed attackers to remotely install …

    Security 9 Jun 05:02

  • Web2.0rhea eclipses search in UK

    National narcissism numbers unveiled

    Internet users in the UK are now officially more interested in talking about themselves than they are in learning about their world. The proof? According to Hitwise, during the month of May more UK web users visited social networking sites than they did search engines — a first. Social networking: an unstoppable juggernaut …

    Music and Media 9 Jun 05:23

  • Ingres strikes back at Microsoft and Oracle iron appliances

    Software and commodity cores, combined

    Two years after Microsoft nicked DataAllegro out from under Ingres, the open-source database vendor has delivered its hardware-loving storage and database response. Ingres has released VectorWise, a database technology that utilizes the cache on multi-core chips to speed data crunching and analysis in massive data sets. The …

    Servers 9 Jun 05:28

  • IBM tunes math on Power/AIX boxes

    Gooses parallel Linux play

    IBM is taking the wraps off its Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library (ESSL) for AIX V5.1. When you charge a pretty hefty premium for a processor and the server that wraps around it, you have to do all you can to squeeze the performance inherent in the box out of the box. This has been true for mainframes for more than …

    Servers 9 Jun 07:02

  • NetSecure SmartSwipe credit card reader

    Review Because you can never be too safe on-line

    We’re constantly hearing stories about credit card fraud and identity theft on the Internet, so the Canadian company NetSecure has come up with a gadget called the SmartSwipe that aims to provide people with a little extra peace of mind when using their credit card online. Card sharp: NetSecure's SmartSwipe The SmartSwipe …

    reghardware 9 Jun 07:02

  • Bill defines 'personal information' to avoid strengthening DPA penalties

    Rapid backpedalling from the new gov

    Ah, the reality of power. For all the opposition talk about strengthening the protection of privacy, in the first weeks of government, the pro-privacy proposition has become more difficult to implement. The inevitable result is that gears are being put into neutral or reverse (as quietly as possible, mind you). So it is with …

    Government 9 Jun 07:55

  • Dell EquaLogic launches automated tiering

    vStorage API integration in new firmware

    Dell has announced XVS versions of its P6000 arrays that provide faster and more efficient VMware storage, plus new firmware that automatically moves hot data into a solid state drive (SSD) tier from SAS disks in the same enclosure. There are two new XVS versions of the EqualLogic PS6000 array, which was originally announced …

    Storage 9 Jun 08:02

  • SGI raises Copan MAID from the dead

    It's persistent alright

    Crashed Copan's MAID product has come back from the dead, branded as SGI's COPAN 400 platform, and pitched as a persistent data disk store. The mixture is as before, a Massive Array of Idle Disks (MAID) to store persistent but little-used data on mostly spun-down disks. SGI bought Copan when that company fell on hard times due …

    Storage 9 Jun 08:54

  • Former heads of HP and eBay win California primaries

    Ink baroness and tat reseller get Republican nods

    Former Silicon Valley empresses Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina won the Republican nominations for California's Governor and one of its Senate seats overnight. Whitman, ex-chief executive of eBay, will bid to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger, while ex-HP boss Fiorina will go head-to-head with incumbent Democrat Senator Barbara …

    Government 9 Jun 09:09

  • Apple bans competing ads from the iPhone

    They're our customers, and we're keeping them

    Apple has tweaked its developer terms and conditions to explicitly lock out in-application advertising services that might compete with its own iAd service. The new terms, picked up by All Things Digital, spell out the rules. Applications may not collect statistical information for advertising, or any other reason, without …

    Mobile 9 Jun 09:26

  • Plucky Finn attempts to drive length of Finland in small digger

    Epic 2½-mph quest electrifies Scandinavia

    Occasionally, like Alexander the Great, adventurous souls living today's degenerate modern life weep because there are no more worlds to conquer. Everest has been climbed, then parachuted; the English Channel has not just been swum, but crossed by flying jetpack also; hardy golfers have played "the most remote and climatically …

    Bootnotes 9 Jun 09:55

  • Panasonic readies monster 3D monitor for sale

    152in beast sports 4096 x 2160 resolution

    Fancy a 152in, 4K-by-2K 3D plasma TV, anyone? Interested? Then call Panasonic, which will begin taking orders for the beast in July - six months after a prototype panel was demo'd at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Be warned: you'll need a capacious wallet. Panasonic didn't say what it expects to charge for the monster …

    reghardware 9 Jun 10:05

  • Owner of Russia's biggest breasts sues over airline buffeting

    Business class seats turned implants into airbags

    The owner of Russia's biggest silicone breasts is suing an airline after a combination of turbulence and skimpy business class seats forced her professional assets to double up as airbags. Model Irene Ferrari is demanding €100,000 in restitution after the buffeting on a Moscow to Zurich flight left her key business assets …

    Bootnotes 9 Jun 10:27

  • Olympus apologises after shipping malware-laced cameras in Japan

    Pre-pwned snappers lay waste to home PCs

    Olympus has apologised after it distributed a digital camera in Japan that came with added malware on its internal memory card. An estimated 1,700 Stylus Tough 6010 digital compact cameras shipped pre-pwned with auto-run code designed to infect Windows PCs they were connected to, net security firm Sophos reports. The malware …

    Malware 9 Jun 10:32

  • Government says axing Becta will save £10m

    And £65m in each subsequent year...

    The closure of Becta will save £10m over the next year, the government said yesterday. Former education minister and Labour MP Ed Balls tabled a parliamentary question in which he asked the Secretary of State for Education to estimate the cost and savings to the Exchequer expected from kyboshing the schools IT quango. "We …

    Channel Register 9 Jun 10:48

  • First WiMAX handset not Sprinting from stores

    Initial sales optimistically overstated

    US operator Sprint has admitted inaccurately claiming that its HTC EVO 4G handset had outsold the Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct combined, by three times in a third of the time. The handset is the first in the US to use Sprint's WiMAX network, existing customers being dongle-based. The operator claimed to have shifted three …

    Mobile 9 Jun 10:49

  • Google infected by World Cup fever

    Jumps on football bandwagon

    Google has tweaked search results for "world cup" to display upcoming matches and the teams still in the contest at the top of its results page. Search for "world cup" and a breathless message tells you: "Kickoff in 2 days!" Below that are the two first matches (South Africa vs Mexico and Uruguay vs France) with dates and …

    Music and Media 9 Jun 10:52

  • Subscribers get $3 each in Classmates suit. How much did the lawyers make?

    Now that would be telling

    Classmates.com, the big American school re-union site, has thrown in the towel in a US class action which accuses it of sending emails that violated the privacy rights of some subscribers. Classmates denies wrongdoing but has decided it is better to settle following "arms' length negotiations" with the plaintiffs. So US …

    reghardware 9 Jun 10:57

  • PARIS in cheeky GPS chip slip

    Our space plane electronic kit laid bare

    Following the recent test of the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) APRS/GPS telemetry transmitter, designed to allow us to track the Vulture 1 space plane as it glides into the history books, we had a couple of emails asking just what electronic wizardry went into this neat piece of kit. In fact, we have two compact …

    PARIS 9 Jun 11:02

  • Samsung throws down the dev challenge

    Event App fans: Code that

    Samsung is throwing down the gauntlet for app developers with a grand prize giveaway competition during its Dev Day here in London. On 18 June at The Congress Centre, 23-28 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS, Samsung will open its doors to developers with an event that promises to give them everything they need to produce …

    Site News 9 Jun 11:10

  • IT jobs market recovering well

    So where's my raise?

    The first three months of 2010 saw a four per cent increase in technology jobs advertised compared to the last quarter of 2009. Despite the banking crisis the financial sector is still posting more ads for permanent posts than any other, according to jobs sites CWjobs and JobAdsWatch.co.uk. In second place is Media, then …

    Channel Register 9 Jun 11:11

  • Mr Ballmer goes to Washington for China pirate gripe

    11 other software chums join scrum

    Big name bosses at 12 tech companies are meeting with US lawmakers and White House officials to complain about illegal software copying in China. According to the Business Software Alliance lobby group, 79 per cent of China's computers ran on counterfeit software in 2009. "We were seeing progress over a number of years... but …

    Applications 9 Jun 11:41

  • Are you getting Double Vision?

    Workshop What hybrid GPU architectures bring to the table

    PCs and diversity go hand in hand, whether it’s how we choose for them to look, feel and perform, or what we expect them to do. As well as business machines, they have become gaming machines, communicators and media centres. They have also become smaller and mobile. Part of the evolution enabling all this choice is the ongoing …

    Desktop Management 9 Jun 11:46

  • Washington cop tases naked lawn sex man

    Second jolt needed for in flagrante lawn mower

    A Washington cop tased a semi-naked man who took umbrage at being interrupted during some al fresco nookie in the Pacific Northwest state on Tuesday morning. The deputy happened upon the 21-year-old Patrick Bergin and his paramour at 2am while responding to a complaint about loud music. The pair were allegedly having sex …

    Bootnotes 9 Jun 11:48

  • Dell Alienware M11x 11in gaming notebook

    Review Playing outdoors

    The Alienware M11x has been heralded as the world's first true gaming netbook. To be fair, that's not a misnomer Dell uses in its advertising, preferring to position the 285mm wide 11.6in widescreen unit as simply a sub-15in gaming laptop. Fire walk with me: Dell Alienware M11x It's right to do so. At 33mm thick, a fraction …

    reghardware 9 Jun 12:15

  • Humanity evolved to cope with 30°C+ heat, says prof

    Scorchio conditions made us hairless, upright, sweaty

    Many of humanity's distinctive features - walking upright, hairlessness, the ability to sweat copiously - arose due to the fact that the place where we evolved has been scorchingly hot for millions of years, according to noted boffins. The cradle of humanity, according to most research, was the Turkana Basin in Kenya's Great …

    Biology 9 Jun 12:17

  • iPad's brain not so unique

    A4 core coming to Android?

    Taking the tear-down to the microscopic level, UBM TechInsights concludes that Apple's A4 processor is manufactured by Samsung and will share a core with that company's next Android handset. The A4 is used in the iPad as well as the next-generation iPhone announced on Monday, and is generally considered to be the product of …

    Mobile 9 Jun 12:33

  • Garmin Connect exposes cycle trip details to world

    Takes Facebookian attitude to privacy

    FourSquare is notorious for disclosing the location of users to world+dog, but the perils of applications that tell potential burglars or stalkers you aren't at home extend far beyond social networks. Garmin Connect, which allows members to upload GPS computer data from cycling trips, shares this data by default, creating a …

    ID 9 Jun 12:36

  • ISA circling the drain

    Nurses seek to safeguard members from Safeguarding Authority

    The Independent Safeguarding Authority, standard-bearer for the last government’s efforts to protect every child in the country from any harm imaginable, is sailing into choppier waters this week with the announcement that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is now seeking a judicial review to delay its implementation. The …

    Government 9 Jun 12:37

  • Strippers hit historic Marconi HQ

    Maybe we can make a radio with this?

    The plight of Chelmsford's historic Marconi headquarters, the world's first radio factory, has upset founder Guglielmo Marconi's family. The listed building is in the hands of receivers, having been empty for two years and after plans to redevelop were abandoned. The BBC found that reporters could wander in through an open …

    Science 9 Jun 12:50

  • Superslim iPhone 4 enough to fend off Android?

    Opinion Impressive new display, but no game changers

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs duly stood up at the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week to introduce the long-awaited iPhone 4. This has become almost as much of a June tradition as Wimbledon tennis, but there was a clear difference this time around. To a far greater extent than on the previous three …

    Mobile 9 Jun 13:41

  • Official: gadgets mute kids better than old-style activities

    Tech toys top for travel

    Modern gadgets are helping to reduce the 'Are we there yet there?' syndrome that gets bored sprogs whining on long journeys. These days, traditional car games just don't cut the mustard. In case you've been on another planet for the last decade and didn't already know this, online retailer Pixmania has conducted a study to …

    reghardware 9 Jun 13:45

  • Conroy pledges to stop spams infecting Aussies' portals

    It's enough to make you sic

    Stephen Conroy has pledged to protect Australians from the threat of spam through their portals. The Australian communications minister made the brave pledge this week as he kicked off the lucky country's National Cyber Security Awareness Week. The minister, who some cruelly believe is himself the biggest threat to Australia' …

    Spam 9 Jun 14:00

  • Brocade launches cloudy Brocade One

    Virtual cluster switching - it's the new big thing!

    Brocade has introduced its new great big vision thing, Brocade One, a cloud and data centre architecture, with Virtual Cluster Switching (VCS) as the core technology for building large, high-performance and flat Layer 2 data centre fabrics to better support server virtualization. Brocade reckons it is in prime position to …

    Storage 9 Jun 14:14

  • Microsoft closes door on 64-bit development for Office 2011

    32-bit only love, I shouldn't Cocoa

    Microsoft will not be extending any 64-bit love to its upcoming Office 2011 suite for Apple Macs. The company confirmed in a blog post yesterday that when the software ships it will come in a 32-bit only flavour. Microsoft blamed the absence of a 64-bit version of Office 2011 on the fact that the vendor's developers hadn't …

    Applications 9 Jun 14:36

  • Malaysian cops bust SMS scam ring

    Dial 419 for fraud

    Malaysian cops have busted an alleged text message spam scam ring thought to have fleeced locals for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The group - a Malaysian and 25 foreigners aged between 16 and 41 - are suspected of raking in RM6.4m ($1.9m) between 2006 and April 2010 using fictitious lottery winnings as a bait for an …

    Crime 9 Jun 14:52

  • Google's Wi-Fi sniff probe reveals 'criminal intent' - PI

    'We paid them to say what?'

    An analysis of Google's Wi-Fi sniffing code, paid for by Google, suggests the company could find itself facing criminal charges, according to a privacy watchdog and pressure group. Google's lawyers Perkins Coie paid computer forensics firm Stroz Friedberg to analyse the code used, presumably in order to defend itself against …

    Law 9 Jun 15:18

  • US Navy dolphins, sea lions hunt rogue robo-subs

    Plunge Of The Machines™ begins

    The US Navy has been forced to unleash a crack force of trained dolphins and sea lions to recapture several underwater robots which went rogue off the coast of Virginia earlier this week. A naval news release said that four REMUS 100 "Swordfish" unmanned underwater vehicles had ceased responding to commands during the joint US …

    Science 9 Jun 15:42

  • Dell kicks out new blades and racks

    PowerEdge snuggles with fast GPUs and fat SSDs

    A resurgent Dell, riding the x64 upgrade wave that is happening in the wake of the recession, will crank out three more machines today, broadening its PowerEdge lineup to chase some more money. The new machines include two PowerEdge blade servers and a new rack machine. All will start shipping in July. The PowerEdge M610x …

    Servers 9 Jun 16:02

  • Microsoft bares Steve Jobs' Flash rant claptrap

    Cuckoo over Cocoa

    Steve Jobs' credibility took another hit on Tuesday when Microsoft let the world know that its upcoming Office for Mac 2011 won't be fully based on Apple's Cocoa frameworks. In a blog post, as The Reg reported earlier today, Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) noted that "we haven't completed the transition of moving …

    Developer 9 Jun 17:59

  • Google Caffeine jolts worldwide search machine

    Web colossus claims 50% more freshness

    Google has completed the roll-out of its next-generation search infrastructure, the indexing system overhaul known as "Caffeine." According to the company, the new setup provides "50 per cent fresher" results than its previous system. Mountain View rolled out a public test of the Caffeine index in a single data center last …

    Servers 9 Jun 18:25

  • Mass hack plants malware on thousands of webpages

    When good sites pwn

    More than 100,000 webpages, some belonging to newspapers, police departments, and other large organizations, have been hit by an attack over the past few days that redirected visitors to a website that attempted to install malware on their machines. The mass compromise appears to have affected sites running a banner-ads module …

    Enterprise Security 9 Jun 19:04

  • Java fragmentation threatens as Oracle-Apache talks stall

    Updated No 'Harmony' for Android

    Google's Android will continue to run an unauthorized version of Java for the foreseeable future — something the Apache Software Foundation has warned will fragment the community. Talks between the ASF and database giant Oracle on tests that could certify the open source version of Java running on Android have made no progress …

    Software 9 Jun 21:18

  • Google morphs Chrome OS into netbook thin client

    Exclusive 'Chromotes' legacy PC apps inside browser

    Google's Chrome OS — the operating system that moves all apps and data into a web browser — will provide remote access to "legacy PC applications" through a mystery process the company calls Chromoting, according to an email from a Google employee. In a message posted by a third party to a public mailing list dedicated to the …

    Software 9 Jun 22:02

  • Judge to movie studios: Why shouldn't I dismiss piracy lawsuits?

    Improper joining of 4,577 downloaders alleged

    A federal judge has ordered attorneys representing movie studios to explain why they lumped thousands of alleged copyright violators into just two lawsuits, an indication she is seriously considering claims by ISP Time Warner and civil liberties advocates that the actions violate well-established court procedures. Rosemary M. …

    Music and Media 9 Jun 22:25

  • Security gaffe exposes addresses of elite iPaders

    AT&T on the hot seat

    AT&T has exposed the email addresses of more than 114,000 early adopters of Apple's iPad, a security breach that could make some of the world's most elite celebrities and executives vulnerable to phishing attacks, Gawker reports. According to an article published Wednesday, the vulnerability in AT&T's website was exploited by …

    ID 9 Jun 23:48

  • Sadville founder lays off 30% of staff

    Real fake recession

    It's a particularly sad day in Sadville. Linden Lab, the startup that founded Sadville, has laid off 30 per cent of its staff. According to the company, this is part of its effort to move Sadville into the web browser and out of its downloadable client. "Today's announcement about our reorganization will help us make Second …

    Music and Media 9 Jun 23:58