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13th August 2010 Archive

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  • Nvidia takes charges punch as Q2 sales drop

    Thanks for the expensive memory

    With sales dropping during its second quarter Nvidia's decided to write off a whole bunch of old chip inventory and take a write down against a proposed settlement of a chip packaging lawsuit hanging over it since late 2008. Nvidia said Thursday sales fell by 19 per cent for the period to August 1, to $811.2m, and Nvidia …

    Financial News 13 Aug 2010, 05:02

  • Oracle sues Google over Java in Android

    Legal clash of the titans

    Oracle has mounted a no-holds-barred legal attack on Google's Android operating system in a lawsuit that accuses the internet giant of deliberately infringing patents and copyrights Oracle holds for the Java platform. In a complaint filed late Thursday, Oracle asked a federal court in Northern California to seize all Android …

    Mobile 13 Aug 2010, 05:36

  • LG 50PK990 Infinia 50in plasma TV

    Review Looks a picture, even when it's off

    With edge lit LCD sets redefining what slim means when it comes to TVs, many of today’s plasmas are starting to look rather chunky in comparison. Or at least they were until LG’s 50PK990 put in an appearance. Despite packing in a FullHD 50in panel and oodles of features, its chassis is a mere 52mm deep making it one of the …

    Hardware 13 Aug 2010, 07:02

  • London tenders for speed cameras

    'They reduce accidents and save money'

    Transport for London has published a tender for the provision of average speed cameras for a project it plans to trial. The cameras will be used to "enforce average speed limits in urban areas", according to the notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 10 August 2010. A spokesperson for the department …

    Law 13 Aug 2010, 08:02

  • DoJ demands HP docs in bribery probe

    Inkgate? Can we call it Inkgate?

    The Department of Justice is demanding HP hands over a pile of documents related to its Russian business as part of a bribery investigation in Germany. German corruption investigators are probing allegations that the ink giant paid bribes to secure a contract with the Russian Prosecutor General's office. It is alleged that an …

    Data Networking 13 Aug 2010, 08:24

  • Raw iron or dynamic data centre

    Reader Study Where have you got to?

    We hear a lot about the self-service data centre, where everything is highly automated and virtualised with dynamic provisioning allowing seamless deployment, management and billing. This is a nice vision, and one we should be working to achieve, but just how realistic is it in today’s environment? We know from previous …

    Server Management 13 Aug 2010, 08:27

  • Mozilla Thunderturkey and its malcontents

    Andrew's Mailbag And better email alternatives

    The dire state of email clients today is an ongoing gripe of mine - and when I get three dozen emails on Sunday, it's clearly a source of frustration for Reg readers, too. It merits a bumper mailbag. For earlier installments, see here and here. Thunderbird 3.x is the focus for this ire. Not all readers are unhappy with it. For …

    Applications 13 Aug 2010, 08:36

  • RIM tries to placate everyone

    Updated Impossible task sure to irritate all parties

    RIM, operator of the BlackBerry service, has been explaining that customers' security and government contracts are equally important, and that it really, really, doesn't have any keys to hand over. The company has been very restrained on the governmental demands and statements put out recently, refusing to comment on just …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 09:18

  • Security flaw creates Android, Palm Pre snoop risk

    It's like James Bond! But not

    Security researchers have uncovered a flaw that creates a means to plant bugging software on Palm Pre devices. The vulnerability means that the Palm Pre phone might be compromised through the receipt of a maliciously constructed vCard. A doctored electronic business card sent by SMS or exchanged could be used to place a …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 09:24

  • Micron intros SSD speed king

    6Gbit/s SATA interface

    Micron has entered the enterprise SSD space with the RealSSD P300, a SATA-based drive it claims is the fastest on the market. It's a 6Gbit/s SATA interface product delivering up to 44,000 read I/Os per second. There is the usual read/write performance skew, producing only 16,000 write IOPS, but Micron points out this is up to …

    Storage 13 Aug 2010, 09:47

  • Perseid meteors 'thrill star-gazers'

    Well, not quite

    Last night's Perseid meteor shower wasn't quite the heavenly firework display the Daily Mail claims, but where conditions were favourable, hopeful skygazers were granted a few nice moments. El Reg's Iberian bureau took advantage of clear skies and agreeable temperatures to crack a few beers up in the mountains of Avila, and …

    Science 13 Aug 2010, 09:49

  • Waledac zombie attacks rise from the grave

    Updated As hard to kill as a horror movie baddie

    Update: Trend Labs has reclassified the malware as a Bredolab variant instead of Waledac. That means the central premise of out original story - that Waladec - is back from the grave - is wrong. "An unfortunate combination of human and machine errors let to the mislabeling of this threat as Waledac. Apologies for the confusion …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 10:27

  • Skype and Google next against the wall in India

    Today BlackBerry, tomorrow the world

    The Indian government is planning to take on Skype, Google and everyone else offering secure comms once it's brought RIM properly to heel. The government met with Indian mobile operators yesterday, resulting in an ultimatum being issued that lawful interception of BlackBerry communications must be made possible by the end of …

    Law 13 Aug 2010, 10:32

  • Shareholders sue HP over Hurd's sex scandal probe

    'Give us back our money'

    HP faces a lawsuit over the departure of Mark Hurd from shareholders angry at the massive payoff he received and accusing the board of failing in their legal duties. Hurd was allowed to resign as CEO last week after an investigation into sexual harrassment allegations uncovered false expenses claims. He walked away with a $12. …

    Financial News 13 Aug 2010, 10:34

  • Desktop virtualisation: The control-plus-flexibility problem

    Workshop Make users and IT happy at the same time

    Desktop virtualisation is attracting serious attention as organisations consider the future potential directions for delivering IT applications and services. The successful deployment of desktop virtualisation is ultimately dependent on both IT and end users getting something tangible from the new systems. Many of the …

    IT at the coalface 13 Aug 2010, 10:38

  • BOFH: Lies and the lying liars who lie about them

    Episode 9 Some truly beastly behaviour

    “And how long will it take?” the user echoes from the handsfree speaker on the PFY’s phone. “To restore access to your email? I’m not sure. Have you tried closing down Outlook and restarting it?” the PFY responds. “Yes.” “What about restarting it in Safe Mode?” “I tried that,” the user says – a little too quickly. “Well …

    BOFH 13 Aug 2010, 11:02

  • BBC new media boss defends iPlayer Flash, slaps Microsoft

    Taxi for Mr Huggers

    The BBC has defended its use of Adobe’s proprietary Flash technology in the Corporation’s iPlayer service. “Our use of Flash is not a case of BBC favouritism, rather it currently happens to be the most efficient way to deliver a high quality experience to the broadest possible audience," said BBC new media boss Erik Huggers in …

    Applications 13 Aug 2010, 11:10

  • Ten unlikely iPhone insurance claims

    What's the damage?

    In the past year, one in five iPhone users insured with Protect Your Bubble made a claim. What for? Since you ask... Top ten wacky claims 1. I dropped it from a hot air balloon 2. I lost it while sky diving 3. It broke when my son used it as a table tennis racket 4. I lost it while building a sand castle for the kids 5. I …

    Phones 13 Aug 2010, 11:21

  • Third ISS spacewalk set for Monday

    NASA hopes to wrap ammonia pump replacement

    The third spacewalk to replace a failed ammonia pump unit on the International Space Station will take place on Monday, NASA has announced. Expedition 24 flight engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock will venture outside the orbiting outpost to finally install a replacement unit and restore the station's full cooling …

    Science 13 Aug 2010, 11:44

  • Rise in Latvian botnets prompts Spamhaus row

    Small nation battles rudeness

    Concerns over the rising tide of nuisance and malicious email from Latvia have sparked an acrimonious dispute between anti-spam organisation Spamhaus and the country's top-level domain registry. NIC.LV, which administers .lv web addresses, has branded Spamhaus "impolite, arrogant and even rude" after it added a large chunk of …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 12:01

  • Android gets talk-tastic Froyo upgrade

    Speak slow-ly and clear-ly to your hand-set

    Android users lucky enough to get a Froyo upgrade have been busy talking to their telephones, as Google adds voice commands to its platform. Users downloading the latest update to Android, version 2.2 codenamed Froyo (following Google's alphabetically-ordered-snacks naming system), are finding that if they're all alone then …

    Mobile 13 Aug 2010, 12:17

  • Opera and QuickTime updates slay buffer bugs

    Client side fixes are go

    Opera has fixed a high-risk flaw in its browser software. Version 10.61 of the Opera resolves a heap overflow vulnerability involving the HTML5 Canvas components of the browser. Left untreated, the flaw would create a possible mechanism for hackers to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems, possibly via drive-by download- …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 12:33

  • Cashpoint mugger flashes distractionary chesticles

    Cunning jub-based attack

    Two Eastern European women last Saturday relieved a Parisian of €300 by using a cunning jub-based attack on their hapless victim. The man was intercepted at a bank in Paris's 6th arrondissement by the pair of female ne'er-do-wells, one of whom demanded cash and tried to distract him using a newspaper as he extracted wonga from …

    Bootnotes 13 Aug 2010, 12:34

  • Tesco touts budget textaholic SIM-only deal

    But is it really the cheapest?

    The British press yesterday trumpeted Tesco Mobile for introducing the supposedly the cheapest SIM-only deal in the market, but a little research shows our colleagues are wrong...here's the deal. Available online and over the phone, the Tesco SIM-only tariff costs £6 a month for unlimited texts and 100 minutes of calls. …

    Mobile 13 Aug 2010, 13:02

  • Big Blue blows $480m on Unica buy

    Sidling up to software

    Big Blue is to buy marketing software outfit Unica Corp for $480m, or $21 per share. The acquisition is a clear signal that IBM hopes to shoulder its way into the lucrative ad software field. In the past few months IBM has been making noises about scooping up companies that will help Big Blue slip into the software and …

    Applications 13 Aug 2010, 13:11

  • Council staff breach DWP database

    26 employees dismissed

    The Department for Work and Pensions has disclosed that 124 council employees illicitly viewed personal data on its Customer Information System last year. A Freedom of Information request by GC News revealed that local authorities dismissed 26 employees during 2009-10 for breaching data security. The department's response …

    Government 13 Aug 2010, 13:34

  • EC consults on low take-up of e-commerce

    Wants more cross-border trade

    The European Commission has asked retailers, governments, telecoms companies and the public to help it to understand why e-commerce has had such a limited effect on trade in Europe. The Commission has launched a consultation process aimed at understanding why, 10 years after the E-Commerce Directive was passed, e-commerce …

    Government 13 Aug 2010, 13:34

  • Symantec revs BackupExec

    Tweaks to the right of me, tweaks to the ...

    Symantec says it's a new release but it's just tweaking: BackupExec 2010 gets faster installation through better wizards and supports SharePoint 2010. Symantec reckons that install time is cut by a fifth. It says recovery time is also reduced because gaps in backup practises are identified by a "Product Recommendation Engine" …

    Storage 13 Aug 2010, 13:37

  • Blackhole your malware

    Sysadmin blog Block the bad domains

    Attempting to prevent Malware from infecting computers is an important duty of a systems administrator. If you are attempting to secure systems then anti-malware applications, restricting the use of vulnerable third party applications and browser extensions are all important. But attempting to prevent – or at least contain – …

    Servers 13 Aug 2010, 13:41

  • Open source's ardent admirers take but don't give

    Open...and Shut Free riders' self-defeating logic

    Open source went mainstream long ago. It's a pity, then, that it's still so poorly understood by many of its most ardent admirers. For example, ask a gaggle of IT executives, as Accenture recently did, why they're heavily adopting open-source software — and adopting heavily, they are: 50 per cent of those surveyed are "fully …

    Software 13 Aug 2010, 14:02

  • Dell'Oro gives QLogic CNA market lead

    HBA and CNA peeing contest

    Dell'Oro peered around the corner into the school bike sheds to see who was pissing higher up the CNA and HBA walls. Turns out QLogic is leading the CNA market and not Emulex. Back in May Emulex publicised an Infonetics report giving it CNA (Converged Network Adapter) market leadership ahead of arch-rival QLogic, which it …

    Storage 13 Aug 2010, 14:35

  • Nvidia licenses Rambus memory tech

    Lawsuits still alive

    Graphics chip maker Nvidia has partially resolved its legal issues with lawsuit-happy Rambus by signing a patent agreement with the memory technology maker. Rambus and Nvidia announced this morning that the patent licensing agreement covers SDR memory controllers as well as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, …

    Hardware 13 Aug 2010, 14:47

  • Alleged pirate fingered for filming film at Harrow flicks

    Faces fraud, illegal distribution charges

    A man in North West London has been accused of fraudulently filming Hollywood movies at a Vue cinema and then distributing the wares illegally. Emmanuel Nimley, 22, of Lincoln Road in Harrow, allegedly filmed Jennifer Aniston’s latest fluffy vehicle, The Bounty Hunter, and other movies in the borough’s St George’s Shopping …

    Media 13 Aug 2010, 15:18

  • Hackers spoof car warning system

    Blowout

    Computer scientists have brought new meaning to the term war driving by hacking into a moving car's wirelessly-connected warning systems and generating fake error messages. A team from the University of South Carolina and Rutgers sent fake tire pressure messages to the onboard computer, generating bogus warning messages. Tire …

    Security 13 Aug 2010, 15:25

  • Symbian Expo opens for submissions

    Speak now or forever... bugger off to Apple?

    The Symbian Expo is off to Amsterdam on 10 November, and is asking those interested in saying a few words to register in the next couple of weeks or risk missing the opportunity. Not that attendees have had much time to plan - the date and venue were announced less than two weeks ago, less than four months before the event …

    Mobile 13 Aug 2010, 15:26

  • Reg Hardware Reviews Digest

    Revisit last week's tech

    In the past seven days, Reg Hardware reviewed many products from the worlds of consumer electronics, gaming, photography and mobile communications. If you missed anything, here are the products we looked at this past week. Lifestyle Philips BDP3100 Blu-ray player The penny-pinchers' player of choice? LG 50PK990 …

    Site News 13 Aug 2010, 15:52

  • London Tube app adds Augmented Reality

    Directed by a live consumer compass

    The TFL-licenced London Tube app for iPhone has launched a feature that directs customers to points of interest on a map by adding familiar Layar-style markers on their iPhone live view. As well as standard transport locations like tube stations and bus stops, it's now possible to locate London Cycle Hire Docking stations and …

    Phones 13 Aug 2010, 15:54

  • 16-year-old makes £1m selling ads

    Little swine Join us in congratulating him

    A 16-year-old kid from Northants has made his first million selling discount software and embedding ads in mobile applications, and aims to be making a hundred times that. While most of us were experimenting with recreational drugs* and getting shot down in flames by the opposite sex, Christian Owens was negotiating limited- …

    Financial News 13 Aug 2010, 15:54

  • Premiership footie ticket scam targets Barclays users

    As blank profiles on ManU site provoke fanciful conspiracy theories

    Football fans are warned to be wary of a wave of phishing attacks to coincide with the start of a new Barclays Premier League season, which kicks off on Saturday. Symantec has intercepted spam messages claiming that recipients have "won a pair of tickets for the 2010/11 Barclays Premier League in a draw" that will supposedly …

    Bootnotes 13 Aug 2010, 16:58

  • Hawking's big-bang team harness SGI super power

    A precise science demands big hardware

    Cambridge University cosmologists working with physicist Stephen Hawking are getting their first real taste of supercomputing power as they upgrade to Silicon Graphics' Altix UV parallel supers. The UK Computational Cosmology Consortium, which was established in 1997 by Hawking to probe the structure of the universe in the …

    HPC 13 Aug 2010, 18:33

  • Ellison wrestles Google to strangle 'unofficial' Java

    Comment Java. Software. Complete. Ownership

    So, the open sore of Java test-kit licensing that Oracle inherited from Sun Microsystems has come to this: Oracle is suing Google. Oracle has claimed in a legal filing lodged with a US court Thursday that Google's increasingly popular Android operating system infringes on seven patents it owns regarding Java. This is no …

    Software 13 Aug 2010, 18:43

  • Dell accused of hiding incriminating evidence in defect case

    Dog-ate-our-email defense alleged

    Dell stands accused of deliberately hiding emails that showed its top executives in the mid-2000s knew the company was shipping millions of defective computers, one of its customers alleged in court filings Thursday. Web hosting provider Advanced Internet Technologies, which alleges Dell knowingly sold computers that contained …

    Hardware 13 Aug 2010, 19:18

  • Microsoft patent victor targets Apple, Cisco...

    VPN infringement blitz

    After being awarded $200m in a patent-infringement case that it brought against Microsoft, VirnetX has now gone after Apple, Cisco Systems, and others. In a brief statement announcing the lawsuit, VirnetX accused Apple, Cisco, NEC, and the self-described "leading global enterprise communications provider" Aastra of violating …

    Networks 13 Aug 2010, 19:25

  • OpenSolaris axed by Ellison

    Long live SoLarry's Solaris

    You all expected it, and now it has come to pass: Oracle has killed off the OpenSolaris development project. There was never any need for the OpenSolaris governing board to commit ritual suicide — they were going to be ignored to death just the same. A lengthy email sent out to the Solaris development team by Mike Shapiro ( …

    Servers 13 Aug 2010, 20:19