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22nd July 2010 Archive

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  • Google cracks open Android's closed development

    OSCON Future control to curb OEM enthusiasm

    Google will crack open more of Android's development process but keep new versions of its mobile OS closed for competitive reasons. The giant will change Android's Native code Development Kit (NDK) so that contributed code joins the publicly available Android source tree rather than going into Google's private tree. There's …

    Developer 22 Jul 2010, 04:25

  • iPhone thief nabbed by GPS, cops say

    Take note, crooks

    iPhone thieves take note: Next time you strike, make sure the coveted device you pilfer isn't equipped with GPS software. That's what 31-year-old Horatio Toure allegedly did on Monday, leading to his arrest just 10 minutes later, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. He was booked on suspicion of grand theft and possession …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 04:27

  • Airline ejects passenger for being hungry

    United makes meal of flight security

    United Airlines ejected a loyal first class passenger from a recent plane flight because he asked if he would be getting dinner. At least, that's his story. He may have been ejected because he's the sort of security threat who claims he's talking about food when he's really talking about the police. United takes such threats …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2010, 04:44

  • Linux police offer deviant Android return from exile

    OSCON Google, you have three options...

    Linux kernel maintainers have offered Google three ways of returning Android into their good graces. Google's options for re-admission to the kernel are: put the stubs of Android's wait locks into the main kernel, introduce Android's wait locks as PMQOS constraints, or adopt a patch written by a Linux kernel maintainer that …

    Developer 22 Jul 2010, 05:37

  • Buffalo USB 3.0 PCI Express card

    Review SuperSpeed drives and cards compared

    In an age where the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface has yet to be officially supported by Intel, storage vendors in particular, are keen to build the best add-on PCI Express adapter card to take advantage of this fast connectivity. SuperSpeed upgrade, anyone? Buffalo Tech's IFC-PCIE2U3 Currently, NEC’s USB 3.0 dual …

    Hardware 22 Jul 2010, 07:02

  • Imitate Real Ale quaffers, save the economy, says biz prof

    'And I don't even like beer'. Weirdo

    Top economics'n'biz brainboxes, having performed a detailed analysis, have announced that the way for the UK economy to revitalise itself is for us all to emulate beer-swilling real ale drinkers. “The fact is that the business world can learn an enormous amount from our beer buffs," insists Professor Peter Swann of the …

    Small Biz 22 Jul 2010, 09:24

  • Fusion-io's flash memory OS plug-in

    Operating system subsystem

    Fusion-io has created a flash-optimised operating system subsystem, the ioMemory Virtual Storage Layer. VSL effectively pools or fuses traditional server DRAM and additional flash memory so that I/O operations requested by applications for files or blocks can use both DRAM, as before, and flash memory to speed up previously …

    Storage 22 Jul 2010, 09:33

  • Hitachi GST solid state drive spotted at convention

    An eye on ZeusIOPS SSDs?

    A Hitachi GST solid state drive (SSD) is being shown at the Hitachi uValue 2010 convention in Tokyo. There is very little information available but we know it's a 2.5-inch form factor product with SAS and FCAL (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop) interfaces, making it a product to fit into a 2.5-inch small form factor disk drive …

    Storage 22 Jul 2010, 09:35

  • Nvidia kicks out CUDA 3.1 for GPUs

    Parallel Nsight plug-in for Visual Studio, too

    If GPU coprocessors are going to go mainstream as adjuncts to CPUs in workstations and servers, the programming has to get easier and developers have to be able to exploit the languages, libraries, and development tools they have traditionally been using to create applications for PCs and servers. With the launch of the CUDA 3. …

    Servers 22 Jul 2010, 09:46

  • Plextor releases budget 3D BD drive

    External add-on

    Optical drive specialist Plextor has unwrapped a USB-powered external Blu-ray box designed for folk who want to embrace the 3D "revolution" more cheaply. Cheap as in £90-odd quid, which buys you the BD playback-only PX-B120U and a copy of Cyberlink Power DVD "for added performance". According to the spec sheet PDF, it also …

    Hardware 22 Jul 2010, 10:01

  • Skype shelves call charges

    Operators will collect the money instead

    VoIP operator Skype has shelved plans to charge users for 3G calling, claiming that operator plans to bill by the byte make such charges redundant. The company's last iPhone client allows calling over a 3G data connection, but when it was launched Skype warned that the capability would be restricted to those paying an …

    Broadband 22 Jul 2010, 10:04

  • Zuckerberg: I'm 'quite sure' I own Facebook

    Dancing on the head of a pin over lawsuit

    Mark Zuckerberg last night addressed the question of whether he owes 84 per cent of Facebook to a New York firewood salesman. His comments in a TV interview followed a federal court hearing on Tuesday, in which a Facebook lawyer said she was "unsure" whether Zuckerberg had signed a contract in 2003, which Paul Ceglia claims …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2010, 10:21

  • Mariposa botnet suspects quizzed in Slovenia

    Butterfly investigation spreads its wings

    Slovenian police have arrested four suspects over allegations that they developed the Mariposa botnet malware. The arrests follow a joint investigation between the FBI and Slovenian police and come after the earlier arrest of three suspects in Spain, who are charged with distributing Mariposa and using it to hack into online …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 10:24

  • Hitachi hides Magic Wand vibrator under a bushel

    Comment Floats like a butterfly, sounds like a lawnmower

    There's one HItachi product you won't see at the company's uValue 2010 convention in Tokyo, the Magic Wand vibrator. Visitors will be told about the huge breadth of Hitachi's product range, running from nuclear power stations through the bullet train to supercomputers, servers, storage arrays and even nappy sensors, but not …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2010, 10:30

  • Collaboration, complexity and compliance

    Workshop It can all be cured by leeches, right?

    The trouble with some terms we use in IT is that they take on a life of their own and suggest an unrealistic simplicity. Take “collaboration” for example. To define it requires a decision: either to focus on a limited set of interactions between specific individuals, or more realistically, to recognise that collaboration refers …

    IT at the coalface 22 Jul 2010, 10:37

  • Huawei accused of corporate theft

    Motorola's secrets shipped to China - again?

    Motorola has accused its own engineers of sending confidential documents to the founder of Huawei, and claims that the receiving company was well aware that the information was stolen. The case, filed in Chicago, is against the Lemko Corp and originally accused five former Motorola workers of taking their secrets with them …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 11:12

  • Mozilla prepares second Firefox 4 beta launch

    Cute little heartbreaker

    The second beta of Firefox 4 is tentatively set to land tomorrow and ahead of that Mozilla has been asking testers to offer feedback about the open source outfit’s latest browser. On Monday Mozilla ran some tests for the Firefox 4 beta 2 code freeze. It found four low-risk bugs still present in the build, but none of those …

    Applications 22 Jul 2010, 11:16

  • What's the difference between an iPod and an iPood?

    One letter, says Apple

    The iPood, a small spade used by Aussie campers to bury their shit, has a new name following an intervention by Apple lawyers. In a letter to the iPood makers, Apple's legal eagles said: "iPood is clearly similar to Apple's iPod, there being merely a single letter difference." That could have been worded better, don't you …

    Hardware 22 Jul 2010, 11:21

  • Movie, tech giants prep universal online media store

    Buy from who you like, play where you like (except Apple)

    A universal digital video system that allows us to "build, manage and enjoy... libraries of digital entertainment content purchased from multiple sources and playable on multiple devices" may at least be about to become a reality. Some 55 technology companies, content publishers and content distributors have banded together to …

    Media 22 Jul 2010, 11:25

  • XIV gets SONAS booster shot

    NAS gateway for block storage

    IBM has given its XIV block-access storage array product a SONAS gateway to enable it to store files. Big Blue has also created a low-end Diligent ProtecTIER deduplication appliance. IBM's SONAS, which stands for Scale-Out Network Attached Storage product, targets very large NAS environments with the NetApp-based N Series …

    Storage 22 Jul 2010, 11:27

  • UK Skylon spaceplane set for engine test in '3-4 years'

    Farnborough Also - fly to the space station with Brian Blessed!

    Reaction Engines, the British firm aiming to build an enhanced "Skylon" space shuttle which would take off from a runway without external tank or boosters, says it expects to test its revolutionary "SABRE" rocket/jet engine within "three to four years". Here's the basic Skylon movie, for those few Reg readers who may not have …

    Science 22 Jul 2010, 11:32

  • UK.gov sacks lead e-Borders contractor

    'On schedule' programme actually 12 months late

    The Home Office has sacked lead contractor Raytheon from the £1.2bn e-Borders programme, saying it has "no confidence" in the firm. The immigration minister Damian Green said today the programme was running at least 12 months late and that Raytheon had been in breach of contract since July last year. Raytheon was the lead …

    Government 22 Jul 2010, 11:33

  • Lancs reseller wins Goodwood deal

    Horses, cars and computers

    CMS Group has won a £450,000 contract with the Goodwood estate - home to horse racing, motor racing events and Europe's largest lowland organic farm. The deal covers the estate's hotel, three restaurants, two golf courses and a private members club. CMS will provide outsourced IT support. The company said it would be a …

    The Channel 22 Jul 2010, 11:49

  • HP MediaSmart Server EX490

    Review Home backup goes large

    Beyond the entry level market for NAS (network attached storage) there is the kind of buyer who has big server requirements within a small operation, and thinks they might get a great deal bigger later on. That's who HP's MediaSmart Server EX490 is aimed at. HP's MediaSmart Server EX490: looks like a hi-fi speaker, but much …

    Hardware 22 Jul 2010, 12:02

  • O2 dithers over Apple iPhone 4 refund pledge

    Existing Ts&Cs apply for now, says carrier

    Apple may have said it will offer iPhone 4 customers a full refund if they return the handset within 30 days of purchase, but O2 is sticking to its 14-day returns policy. O2 yesterday followed up a couple of 'we'll tell you more soon' messages posted on its website on the Friday of Apple's iPhone 4 press conference and right …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 12:19

  • Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

    Interview The Risku Manifesto - now in English

    A couple of months ago, a book appeared in Finland which has become a minor sensation. In the book, a former senior Nokia executive gives his diagnosis of the company, and prescribes some radical and surprising solutions. Up until now, the book has not been covered at all in the English language. This is the first review of the …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 12:37

  • Acer 'HTC killer' gets UK release

    Stream on sale

    UK retailer Expansys has the exclusive on Acer's Stream smartphone - the vendor's answer to the HTC Desire - reviewed here - which it announced in May. Stream sports a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; 3.7in, 800 x 480 OLED touchscreen, 5Mp autofocus camera with 720p HD video recording; trid-band HSDPA 3G connectivity; 802. …

    Phones 22 Jul 2010, 13:03

  • 4chan flings faeces at Gawker

    News blog stumbles after hacker twattery

    An attack by hackers at 4chan on Gawker left the news blog intermittently unavailable on Wednesday. 4chan's denizens reportedly launched the attack in reprisal to a recent article on Gawker about the alleged harassment of an 11-year-old girl by users of the image board. The DDOS assault on Gawker began on Tuesday and peaked …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 13:28

  • Nokia smartphones dumb down profits

    Cheaper phones mean lower profits

    Nokia had braced investors for bad news today, and duly announced higher revenues but lower profits in its Q2 earnings statement. Net sales after adjustments topped €10bn, one per cent higher than the same quarter last year, and up five per cent sequentially. The mobile handset market grew five per cent in the period, but as a …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 13:32

  • Microsoft lines staff pockets with Windows 7 phone

    iPhone? iForget about it!

    Microsoft plans to dish out Windows 7 phones to all its staff in a move clearly designed to get people talking about the company's wannabe rival to Apple's iPhone. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet yesterday tweeted the MS announcement at the software vendor's annual backslapping fest - otherwise known as the Microsoft Global Exchange. …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 13:37

  • The Hack in the Box ATM talk that never was...

    No vendor threats, 'cos no talk, says researcher

    A banking security researcher has stepped forward to deny reports that vendor threats forced him to cancel a presentation on ATM security at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam earlier this month. Many outlets, including El Reg, reported that a presentation on the vulnerabilities and security shortcomings that cyber …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 14:06

  • Linx outage caused by upgrade

    20 minute lie-down

    A mangled port upgrade caused an outage at Linx yesterday. A spokesman for Linx (the London Internet Exchange) said a routine port upgrade introduced a problem which caused processor usage in a router to surge, leading to instability on one of its LANs. The other LAN, provided by another vendor, took over and members had to …

    Broadband 22 Jul 2010, 14:19

  • Samsung woos developers with Bada book

    But, but, it's free... come back!

    Samsung has decided to give away electronic copies of An Introduction To Bada, hoping that a free guide will drum up some developer interest in the platform. The book, the only one on Bada so far, isn't even due to be published until September, but Samsung will send it free in instalments to anyone who's interested, as part of …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2010, 14:20

  • MPs call for crackdown on pre-paid credit cards

    Child abusers getting away with it

    The government has been urged by MPs to tighten controls on pre-paid credit cards, with claims they help child abusers avoid detection online. Labour MP Geraint Davies said the cards were routinely used by paedophiles to hide their identities as he proposed a bill on Wednesday to force credit card companies to act. He wants …

    Law 22 Jul 2010, 14:49

  • Malaysia bans 'satanic' Man Utd kit

    Your mother sucks Barca and Brazil shirts in hell, also

    Manchester United replica shirts have become a banned item in Malaysia after local clerics took exception to the presence of a red devil on the club's crest, branding the image "dangerous and un-Islamic", Sky News reports. Malaysian fans of the team have reacted angrily to the decision, voicing their disapproval on social …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2010, 14:53

  • Bill Gates' other company dinged for fraud

    Battling the image beast

    Seattle-based software company Infoflows has been awarded $20m in damages by a US Court, ending a three year dispute with Corbis. The judge decided that Corbis illegally stole Infoflows' intellectual property - its software. The names may not immediately mean much to you. But Corbis was founded in 1989 by William Henry Gates …

    Applications 22 Jul 2010, 15:10

  • Boffins develop greenhouse invisible to night-vision goggles

    'Glass cloak' would show up on thermal imagers, though

    Boffins in the States say they have designed a "glass cloak" which renders objects within it invisible in the infrared spectrum. Prof Elena Semouchkina and her colleagues developed the "cloak", which reportedly bends micron wavelengths around its interior. Micron-length waves are in the near infrared, the part of the …

    Science 22 Jul 2010, 15:17

  • How to survive desktop virtualisation

    Regcast Don't mess up and make everyone hate you

    So you’re thinking about desktop virtualisation. Are you mad? Most of your colleagues think so. Your users hate you already, because you want to take away their PCs. Your boss suspects you’re going to blow the budget on a bunch of ugly dumb terminals that take half an hour to boot. Mess this one up and you’ll be lucky if they …

    Virtualization 22 Jul 2010, 15:23

  • ContactPoint to be erased from history

    Children's Minister torches child database, suggests we never speak of it again

    The bonfire of the databases continues apace today, with an announcement from Children’s Minister Tim Loughton that ContactPoint will be switched off on 6 August. The ContactPoint project was launched in the wake of a string of disasters in childcare – of which the Victoria Climbié case was one of the most significant - in …

    Government 22 Jul 2010, 16:04

  • Apple ad-addled OS scheme resurfaces

    (Marginally) less draconian

    Steve Jobs & Co have renewed their interest in developing an operating system that can disable "one or more functions" of your Mac while an ad is being played. "Jobs; Steven; (Palo Alto, CA)" is the first-listed inventor in a filing published Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The application, "Advertisement in …

    Media 22 Jul 2010, 18:37

  • Microsoft to banish 'responsible' from disclosure debate

    Google, too

    Microsoft has submitted a proposal aimed at quelling one of the oldest debates in security circles: retiring the use of the term “responsible disclosure”. The software maker wants to replace the term with the less pejorative phrase “coordinated vulnerability disclosure.” The hope is that software makers and researchers can put …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 18:43

  • Xiotech won't get OEM ISE deals

    Seagate single-sourcing show-stopper

    Why isn't Xiotech, the supplier of sealed ISE enclosures of Seagate disk drives, not getting any OEM deals with the likes of NetApp and Xyratex? After all, it offers better performance from an ISE than the equivalent number of hard drives in an ordinary enclosure, plus it provides a 5-year warranty that no engineer will need to …

    Storage 22 Jul 2010, 20:37

  • Removing SCADA worm could disrupt power plants

    Security catch 22

    Siemens has made a program available for detecting and disinfecting malware attacking its software used to control power grids, gas refineries, and factories but warned customers who use it could disrupt sensitive plant operations. The Munich-based engineering company on Thursday began distributing Sysclean, a malware scanner …

    Security 22 Jul 2010, 21:49

  • Dell pays $100m to settle accounting fraud charges

    Michael Dell pays $4m

    Dell has agreed to pay $100 million to settle US Security and Exchange Commission charges that it failed to disclose information to investors and used fraudulent accounting practices to give the false impression it was meeting Wall Street earnings targets. Separately, Michael Dell – the company's founder, chairman, and CEO – …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2010, 22:52

  • Amazon's profit disappoints, thanks to Apple's iPad success

    Current quarter not so sanguine, either

    Amazon reported disappointing second-quarter profit on Thursday, as competition from Apple, weakening European currencies and shrinking consumer spending ate into the company's bottom line. Shares tumbled 15 percent following the announcement. CEO Jeff Bezos said sales for its Kindle e-book reader were accelerating, but they …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2010, 23:01