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2nd August 2010 Archive

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  • NatWest calls off legal attack dogs

    Apologises for hair-triggered lawyers

    Moving with the speed of an injured rock, NatWest has finally withdrawn its legal threats against a student advice site. 118student.co.uk offers advice to students and has pages reviewing all the major banks' student accounts. Site owner Peter Hale was shocked to receive a letter accusing him of abuse of trademarks and …

    Law 2 Aug 2010, 08:23

  • Want cheap international calls? Pay foocall for the privilege

    El Reg applauds cut-price name

    It's a tip of the hat this fine Monday morning to cheap international phone call outfit foocall - whose name suggests its service may be even cheaper than promised. Well, opinion here is divided as to whether foocall is a truly brilliant piece of branding or a corporate blonde moment. Whatever the case, there's foocall the …

    Mobile 2 Aug 2010, 08:24

  • UAE to cut off BlackBerry users

    Best before 11 October

    The United Arab Emirates will impose a ban on the email service on RIM's BlackBerry devices from October 1st this year because it's just too secure to be allowed to exist. BlackBerry-fumblers will however still be able to make phone calls, use SMS and MMS and browse the web freely. The ban was announced yesterday, and comes …

    Mobile 2 Aug 2010, 09:12

  • Satnav leaves family stranded in Outback for three days

    Ignore those 'Road Closed' signs, why don't you

    We bring you today's GPS navigation mishap hilarity news from Australia, where a family of four were trapped in their car for three days after ignoring road signs. The family were travelling across Australia from Brisbane to Perth followed the instructions of their GPS and entered the Darling River Road in New South Wales's …

    Science 2 Aug 2010, 09:13

  • ISS suffers coolant pump failure

    'No danger' from ammonia system breakdown

    The International Space Station's crew is "not in any danger" following the failure of an ammonia cooling loop pump on Saturday night. NASA explains that a circuit breaker trip preceded the breakdown of the "Pump Module for loop A that feeds ammonia to maintain the proper cooling for systems and avionics", just before midnight …

    Science 2 Aug 2010, 09:23

  • Sage walks away from TeamSystem bid

    Exits €650m takeover war

    Sage is reportedly not bidding for Italian business management firm TeamSystem, after it mulled putting in a £542m (€650m) offer for the company last week. Sources told the Financial Times late on Friday that no bid was put forward for TeamSystem, which is being sold by private equity outfit Bain Capital, following due …

    Applications 2 Aug 2010, 09:24

  • Apple ditches video evidence

    Drops antenna clips in bin, walks away whistling

    Apple has expunged videos of competing cellphones exhibiting comparative reception problems, perhaps hoping that if it can just stop talking about the problem then everyone will forget it happened. Having told everyone that the iPhone 4 doesn't have reception problems, and that every cellphone exhibits the same symptoms, Apple …

    Phones 2 Aug 2010, 10:43

  • Poisoned Angelina flick hits torrents

    Salt tastes bitter

    Cybercrooks have begun using booby-trapped QuickTime files to infect internet pirates' computers. Malicious files posing as the recent Angelina Jolie film Salt are now available on file sharing networks. When users attempt to view these poisoned downloads a prompt is generated offering to download "update codecs" - actually …

    Security 2 Aug 2010, 10:46

  • Is it all over for Mars Rover?

    Martian winter might do for plucky robot

    NASA is warning that we might have heard the last message from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit because it might not survive the Martian winter. The Spirit Rover hasn't been heard from since 22 March. The team expected it to go into hibernation mode because the low angle of the sun and the Rover's position make its solar …

    Science 2 Aug 2010, 10:48

  • Hollywood claims Aussie ISP promoted BitTorrent use

    Trying again to make iiNET police its customers

    In February, the Australia Federal Court ruled that iiNet, the country's third biggest ISP, was not liable for copyright infringements committed by customers. The plaintiff, the Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT), which represents the film industry, vowed to appeal and the two sides were arguing the toss in …

    Media 2 Aug 2010, 10:58

  • Wikileaks publishes encrypted 'insurance' file

    1.4GB mystery

    Wikileaks, the transparency website under pressure from the US government over its disclosure of intelligence documents from Afghanistan, has published a mysterious large file labelled 'insurance'. The 1.4GB file is encrypted with AES-256, so its contents are unknown, but it was quietly posted on the site's Afghan War Diary …

    Law 2 Aug 2010, 10:59

  • Firefox market share drops as IE makes slender gain

    But Chrome is the one to watch now

    Mozilla’s Firefox has lost market share against Google’s young pretender Chrome browser for the third month in a row. According to NetMarketShare’s latest stats, Firefox's share of the global browser market slipped under 23 per cent in July. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer saw its usage share rise a slender 0.42 per …

    Applications 2 Aug 2010, 11:17

  • iRobot cops US Army droid order, aces Q2 results

    Military Roombas cost like Ferraris

    iRobot Corporation, famous as pretty much the only major consumer robotics company in existence, has announced a new military order and results defying market expectations. Or you could have about 300 Roombas. The firm, maker of the iconic Roomba floor-cleaning droid, issued crowd-pleasing Q2 results last week backed by …

    Government 2 Aug 2010, 11:25

  • Limited end-to-end FCoE

    Hors d'oeuvre only

    VMware has certified a Cisco and NetApp end-to-end FCoE connection scheme but this doesn't mean a new dawn as core switches still don't support passing on FCoE messages, only top-of-rack-switches (TORS). FCoE means Fibre Channel over Ethernet and involves sticking Fibre Channel messages inside Ethernet packets so that server- …

    Storage 2 Aug 2010, 11:26

  • Job ads up despite coalition cutbacks

    Fastest growth for three years

    The latest quarterly survey of temporary and permanent job postings reveals an eight per cent increase in jobs, despite public sector cutbacks. The number of jobs advertised in the public sector has fallen 21 per cent since the last survey in March. But contracting jobs for local and central government IT departments is still …

    Management 2 Aug 2010, 11:34

  • iPhone 4 jailbreak banks on browser exploit

    Free and legal, you say?

    Hackers have developed a browser-based tool able to jailbreak Apple's iPhone 4. The tool, published on Sunday and available via JailbreakMe.com was developed by the iPhone Dev Team. It allows users of the smartphone to run apps other than those approved by Apple. Unlike previous jailbreaking utilities, the latest application …

    Applications 2 Aug 2010, 11:35

  • ITV preps pay TV service

    In talks with BSkyB

    ITV is expected to launch a pay-TV service that'll include a new channel and high definition versions of its current selection. The broadcaster is in talks with BSKYB to supply HD versions of ITV2, ITV3 and ITV 4 as satellite channels, according to yesterday's Sunday Times (behind a paywall so no link love). New CEO Adam …

    Hardware 2 Aug 2010, 12:03

  • Calling data center professionals everywhere

    Reader Study Tell us about life in the jungle

    How does the world look to you? We want to draw a picture of the world from the point of view of the data center professional - several pictures in fact, depending on the size of your business, the way your IT environment is organized and your role in the whole thing. As I was once told by a senior ops guy, many people "have …

    Tech Panel 2 Aug 2010, 12:15

  • Lindsay Lohan released from screaming lesbian ordeal

    Exits jail after 13 days

    Bespeckled thespiatrix Lindsay Lohan has been released from jail after serving just 13 days of her 90-day sentence for breaching parole. According to the BBC, Lohan walked from Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California earlier today, having survived screaming lesbian gangs, malevolent screws and turkey with …

    Bootnotes 2 Aug 2010, 12:24

  • Wacom Cintiq 21UX interactive pen display

    Review Designer on-screen drawing tablet

    Wacom may be best known for its standalone, pressure-sensitive tablets, but its current flagship product is a 21-inch LCD monitor, but with a difference. The whole screen of the Cintiq 21UX is one enormous graphics tablet that you can draw on directly. Drawing board: Wacom's Cintiq 21UX In essence, the Cintiq 21UX …

    Tablets 2 Aug 2010, 12:25

  • Hacking into GSM for only $1500

    Demonstrated and documented

    A researcher at the DefCon hackers' meet has demonstrated kit for spoofing GSM base stations, allowing even those on a limited budget to intercept phone calls and text messages. The audience attending the talk by Chris Paget were able to see their own handsets transferring to his spoofed base station, with calls receiving a …

    Mobile 2 Aug 2010, 12:38

  • DfT denies deliberately misleading on speed cam stats

    As Swiss prepare for new supercams

    The Department for Transport last week denied deliberately misleading the public by exaggerating claims of the beneficial effects of speed cams. This follows an exclusive report in The Register, revealing that the DfT now accepts that its claim that speed cams on average lead to a reduction of 42 per cent in the Killed and …

    Government 2 Aug 2010, 12:43

  • Open source: A hardy few do all the work

    Where are Google and IBM when you need them?

    A census of open source developers has provided a sharp reminder of the necessity of commercially viable open source companies, and also how important it is that commercially viable open source companies employ good people to write open source. This probably isn't news to Reg readers, for whom it might be bleeding obvious - …

    Operating Systems 2 Aug 2010, 12:57

  • MS Office for Mac 2011 out in October

    RRPs shaved

    Word up. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is available at the end of October and consumer prices are cut to bring them closer to its Windows sister. Buy Office 2008 for Mac between now and the launch and you qualify for a free upgrade when the new version hits the shelves. Retail customers are given the choice of two versions …

    Software 2 Aug 2010, 13:30

  • Stealth fighter in Canadian Wikipedia brouhaha

    Politico 'has 6 toes on each foot', say splurtopedians

    National politicians in Canada have become involved in a row over government computers being used to amend the Wikipedia page describing the controversial F-35 stealth fighter, which the Canadian government intends to buy. Canada's Conservative government intends to spend as much as CAN$18bn buying F-35s. The jet is …

    Government 2 Aug 2010, 13:42

  • Dell outsourcer lifts US woman's saucy pix from PC

    Updated Adding that personal xxx touch to remote access

    An extremely naive American woman who contacted Dell’s tech support helpline reportedly got more than she bargained for, after some very personal photos were swiped from her computer. News10 reported last week that Sacramento, California resident Tara Fitzgerald, 48, had allowed Riyaz Shaikh - an employee of Sitel India, which …

    Hardware 2 Aug 2010, 13:45

  • Carphone Warehouse unveils music locker that isn't

    Updated Orb-like cloud music service

    Carphone Warehouse will finally launch its much-touted music service tomorrow. It will allow you to listen to your music anywhere, as well as dipping into a catalog of six million tracks. Carphone Warehouse has promoted the service via its MyHub portal for a while, and an iPhone app for it leaked out three weeks ago. It's an …

    Media 2 Aug 2010, 14:02

  • Communications breakdown

    Workshop Managing UC risks

    Communications mechanisms in the workplace – from mobile devices to instant messaging and web conferencing – have proliferated over recent years. The days when a telephone was all you needed are long gone: nowadays, people juggle regularly between multiple mechanisms using various interfaces to communicate as they go about their …

    IT at the coalface 2 Aug 2010, 14:14

  • Council's school-snoop-op ruled illegal

    'Sinister' catchment area spying disproportionate

    Local officials who subjected a Dorset family to covert surveillance to find out if they had lied to get their youngest child into an outstanding primary school acted illegally, a landmark ruling said today. Poole Borough Council's spying on Jenny Paton, her partner Tim Joyce, and their three daughters was "not proportionate …

    Law 2 Aug 2010, 14:18

  • RFID chips snooped from 66 metres

    US military could maybe read the thing at 80 miles. By gum!

    RFID tags can be read at a surprising range, a researcher has found. When he's not listening in to GSM phone calls, Chris Paget has been busy seeing at what distance an RFID tag can be read, managing a respectable 217 feet. Paget also reckons the US military could read an EPC Gen2 tag from 80 miles off, though the connection …

    Broadband 2 Aug 2010, 14:21

  • Server sales do drunk cat bounce in 2010

    Bad news for Oracle, better news for Dell

    For the last three quarters, the server business has been on the upswing, with strong growth relative to the perfectly awful sales levels set at the end of 2008 and in the first half of 2009. Intel is making money hand over fist, and even Advanced Micro Devices has put some black ink on its bottom line. The server business is …

    Servers 2 Aug 2010, 14:55

  • Boffins: Arctic cooled to pre-industrial levels from 1950-1990

    Late 20th century saw polar chill as CO2 rose

    New research by German and Russian scientists indicates that summer temperatures in the Arctic actually fell for much of the later 20th century, plunging to the levels seen at the beginning of the industrial revolution. The new results are said by their authors to indicate that solar activity exerted a powerful influence over …

    Science 2 Aug 2010, 15:17

  • DTrace co-creator quits Sun, hits delete on Oracle

    Bryan Cantrill dreams of eternal sunshine

    The co-creator of DTrace has seemingly erased all memory of Larry Ellison’s Oracle from his mind, after quitting Sun Microsystems for an engineering veep role at Joyent last week. Bryan Cantrill is the latest in a long list of Sun men to quit the firm, following its takeover by Oracle earlier this year. His exit came just a …

    Servers 2 Aug 2010, 15:32

  • Chip sales stay high in June

    Don't bogart that semi market

    Chip sales, thanks to the myriad types of computing and electronics gear that depend upon them, continued to boom in the latest quarter, says the Semiconductor Industry Association. The SIA tracks sales on a rolling three-month basis and averages these months to smooth out some of the choppiness in its data. (Argue amongst …

    Hardware 2 Aug 2010, 15:44

  • Botnet with 60GB of stolen data cracked wide open

    Fast flux no more

    Researchers have cracked open a botnet that amassed more than 60GB of passwords and other stolen data, even as it cloaked itself using a state-of-the-art technique known as fast flux. When its command-and-control server was infiltrated, the Mumba botnet had snagged more than 55,000 PCs, according to the researchers from anti- …

    Security 2 Aug 2010, 18:06

  • Microsoft responds to IE8 'privacy quashed' report

    Heated exchanges

    Microsoft has responded to a report that claims it curtailed Internet Explorer 8's privacy architecture to benefit advertisers and marketers online. IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch blogged here about IE8's InPrivate Filtering feature, which helps stop websites from sites collecting information about which sites you visit …

    Applications 2 Aug 2010, 18:50

  • Win 7 up, Mac OS X down in market share wars

    XP still king of the hill - by far

    The latest operating system market-share figures are in, and the news is good for fans of Windows 7, and ho-hum for Mac OS X aficionados. Since its release last October, Windows 7's star has been steadily rising — and this July it passed the lamentable Windows Vista to become the world's number-two OS, according to stats from …

    Operating Systems 2 Aug 2010, 19:46

  • Voda NZ answers iPhone 4 complaint - with a song

    'If you don't want an iPhone 4, don't buy it'

    We have written quite enough about Vodafone New Zealand's chaotic iPhone 4 launch last week, although Reg reader and Kiwi blogger Ahmad disagrees. He tells us that Voda NZ's iPhone 4 customers who set up FaceTime video calling are sent an SMS from the UK for a one-time fee of 20c. This is a paltry sum, but it is also a hidden …

    Mobile 2 Aug 2010, 20:03

  • Microsoft rushes out emergency fix for critical Windows bug

    Get yours now

    Microsoft on Monday rushed out an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability that criminals are exploiting to install malware on all supported versions of the Windows operating system. As promised Friday, Microsoft released the update outside of its normal patching schedule because the vulnerability is being actively …

    Security 2 Aug 2010, 21:08

  • IBM deploys x64 battle waggon

    Massive server virtualization targeted

    When Intel was rolling its Nehalem-EX Xeon 7500 processors into position on the hills high above the x64 war last Spring, IBM kicked out two boxes and promised it had another one in the works. In three weeks, the System x3690 X5 server - an armored personnel carrier compared to the System x3850 X5 tank and the HX5 blade attack …

    Servers 2 Aug 2010, 21:08

  • Android surges past iPhone in smartphone sales

    RIM and Windows Mobile continue to slide

    Sales of Android-based smartphones are surging, tearing chunks of market share out of Apple, RIM, and Windows Mobile's hides. According to a report released Monday by the analysts at The Nielsen Company, although RIM and Apple still hold their number one and two positions as the top two suppliers of smartphones in the US, …

    Phones 2 Aug 2010, 21:43

  • Conn. lawman grills Apple and Amazon over e-book pricing

    Most favored nation status scrutinized

    Connecticut's top law enforcement official said he is investigating whether agreements Apple and Amazon.com have reached with e-book publishers violate antitrust laws by freezing competitors out of the market. In letters to the general counsels of Apple and Amazon, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he was concerned …

    Media 2 Aug 2010, 22:53

  • 'Be careful' warning accompanies latest Linux kernel

    Unfinished code makes Torvalds unhappy

    The next Linux kernel has been released with a tidy little warning from Linus Torvalds for code committers to pay more attention and be more careful. Linux Kernel 2.6.35 has been kicked out after Torvalds said he could see very little reason to offer any more release candidates. Features include changes to networking with …

    Operating Systems 2 Aug 2010, 23:30