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23rd August 2010 Archive

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  • 119 iPad apps for admins, coders and geeks

    Part two: Useful || fun ! pointless; // for coders*

    Previously, The Reg pointed sysadmins toward a slew of iPad apps that might brighten their workaday worlds. The target market for today's second installment of our iPad-app round-up is coders. If you missed our first installment of "119 iPad apps for admins, coders, and geeks", you might want to take a quick peek at its intro …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 04:38

  • Oracle names self virtualization king

    VMware? IBM? Can't touch us

    If Oracle and Sun Microsystems have anything in common - and as the poster children for Silicon Valley's IT upstarts, they have much in common - it is that they are not afraid to say they have the best technology and no one can touch them. That, in a nutshell, was what Oracle's top techies spent hours trying to convince the …

    Virtualization 23 Aug 2010, 04:45

  • True Utility Scarab and KeyTool micro multi-tools

    Review 007-style gadgetry for geeks

    My Victorinox CyberTool multiplex knife goes with me everywhere. But while it's bloody useful of disassembling hardware and putting it back together, it's not exactly compact. Ditto your average Leatherman multi-tool. Hence my interest in True Utility's Scarab, which squeezes a handful of tools down into a 50 35 x 7mm, 46g …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 07:02

  • Google scoops up more social networking talent

    I Like.com a lot, come play with me

    Google has bought Like.com in its latest social networking takeover. The world's largest ad broker has in the past few weeks been hoovering up Web2.0 outfits in a clear move to build its own social network site by bringing in talent from outside the Googleplex. Like.com confirmed that Mountain View had acquired the firm, but …

    Applications 23 Aug 2010, 08:34

  • Assange denies 'sexual assault' allegations

    Lie gets halfway round the world before truth gets its boots on

    Swedish prosecutors made public accusations of rape and molestation against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and then quickly dropped them over the weekend. An arrest warrant was issued, in absentia, on Friday night, then withdrawn on Saturday. Two women aged 20 and 30 made the claims about two separate incidents to Swedish …

    Law 23 Aug 2010, 08:52

  • Convirture aims around VMware to hit Xen and KVM

    Wants vSphere-like magic

    I meant to write about these guys earlier, but a vacation (and general laziness) kept it from happening in a timely manner. I recently had a briefing with Convirture, a startup that is striving to bring the full slate of virtualization bells, whistles, and management tools to the Xen and KVM hypervisors. Our pal TPM wrote a …

    Virtualization 23 Aug 2010, 09:11

  • Samsung heading DRAMurai charge

    Number one DRAM deliverer

    Goliath just got bigger; Samsung expanded its lead at the top of the DRAM market last quarter, shipping more memory than anyone else and at prices above the industry average. Analyst house iSuppli characterised the quarter as one of explosive DRAM growth and said it was the best second quarter for fifteen years. The overall …

    Channel Register 23 Aug 2010, 09:23

  • NASA seeks soundtrack for final shuttle mission

    Send us your original space-based wakeup tunes

    NASA has invited Joe Public to vote on which two wakeup songs will rouse the crew of Discovery's 1 November STS-133 mission, and hopes musicians will rise to the challenge of writing some original music for the last shuttle flight when Endeavour blasts off on STS-134 on 26 February 2011. Discovery astronauts will enjoy a …

    Space 23 Aug 2010, 09:38

  • Sony can detect PS3 mod chip dongle use

    Mass PSN bans to follow?

    Reports are coming in that Sony can detect use of the PS Jailbreak USB dongle when a console that's using the device is connected to the PlayStation Network. The PS Jailbreak dongle is claimed to allow PS3 owners to rip games to external hard drives from where the titles can subsequently be loaded and played without the …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 09:50

  • Regulator allows charging for uncounted TV text votes

    If viewers are warned

    Broadcasters can charge people for TV text message votes received after voting has closed as long as the closing time is made clear to viewers, premium rate phone regulator PhonepayPlus (PPP) has said. The regulator has updated rules (pdf) introduced in 2008 as a wave of phone vote scandals rocked the television industry. It …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 10:07

  • Sons of Kahn: The Apocrypha

    Stob Delphi in a Discotheque

    The Sons of Kahn move on And it came to pass, as hath previously been extensively documented, that the Sons of Kahn were sold by the Borlandites unto the hyperpolysyllabic Embarcoderhododendrongogogoch. And one acquisition begat another. For, in turn, the Borlandites themselves were absorbed by the tribe of Methuselah-focus …

    Verity Stob 23 Aug 2010, 10:07

  • Vodafone launches, prices up mobile hotspot gadget

    Huawei-made R201 out on pay monthly

    Vodafone has launched the R201 mobile hotspot, which first emerged last week. The R201 shares a tri-band 3G connection - 7.2Mb/s HSDPA, 5.8Mb/s HSUPA - between five devices that link up to it over Wi-Fi. It has a Micro SDHC card slot that can likewise be shared among clients, by DLNA and SMB file-sharing. Pay-monthly deals …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 10:08

  • Jobs offers relief for iOS 4-running iPhone 3Gs

    Software update will fix slowdowns, apparently

    iPhone 3G owners who have installed iOS 4 and regretted it can take heart. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently promised a software update "soon" that may bring the handset back up to speed. Not only the original iOS 4.0 update but also the subsequent 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 tweaks have failed to run as quickly on the 3G as iOS 3 - …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 10:24

  • eCrime cops charge 12 over iTunes royalty 'fraud'

    Back in court next month

    The Metropolitan Police's eCrime unit has charged 12 people with fraud and money laundering offences connected to iTunes. The 12 have been charged with various offences after an investigation carried out with help from the FBI. The alleged fraud involved the use of a US firm to upload tracks to iTunes and Amazon, and the use …

    Policing 23 Aug 2010, 10:26

  • Viewsonic readies 7, 10in Android tablets

    IFA introduction

    Monitor maker Viewsonic will show off a pair of Android-running tablets at Berlin's IFA show next month. The first, a 7in iPad wannabe also packs in 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, at least on USB port and a Micro SD card slot. A second tablet, this one with a 10in screen, will ship with Windows 7 and Android, the …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 10:35

  • LSI, Seagate and Samsung

    No discord, no spin

    When Seagate announced a flash controller partnership with Samsung doubts and rumours were raised about the health of its existing flash controller partnership with LSI. Would Samsung supplant LSI? Would the Seagate Pulsar solid state drive (SSD) with LSI technology in its controller, continue to ship? Would LSI ship the PCIe …

    Blocks and Files 23 Aug 2010, 10:51

  • Visa and BofA plot operatorless NFC

    Hitting New York next month

    Bank of America and Visa will be running trials of NFC technology next month but the network operators won't be involved this time, as companies sidestep the traditional process. The trials will use NFC circuits built into MicroSD cards that can be slotted into a phone or a specially-equipped iPhone case to provide secure …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 11:03

  • Google to expand Dublin workforce with new ops wing

    Putting Ireland on the map

    Google plans to hire 200 people in Dublin, Ireland, where it's currently setting up a new ops division. The centre will be located in the Eastpoint Business Park, according to the Irish Times. Mountain View said the new office would oversee the firm's location-based tech products, such as Google Local and Google Maps. “The …

    Applications 23 Aug 2010, 11:04

  • Yemeni assassin hits York man with spam death threat

    We'll spare you for $50k

    A software engineer form York has been left nonplussed after a group of hired guns from the Yemen Arab Republic claimed to have been contracted to "terminate" him with extreme prejudice. Charles Anderson told El Reg he received an email last week from a "Gladlord Mohammed" informing him that "i have being paid $200,000.00 in …

    Spam 23 Aug 2010, 11:07

  • Galaxy S firmware update invalidates Voda warranties

    Loyalties divided

    Galaxy S owners who accept Samsung's offer of updated firmware will invalidate their warranty according to Vodafone, which wishes to remain the only source of official upgrades. The upgrade is offered automatically by Samsung's Windows synchronisation software, as supplied in the box from Vodafone, and has not been approved by …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 11:13

  • Black helicopters circle 'Welsh Roswell'

    Eyewitness dismisses MoD cover-up

    Ufologists will doubtless be delighted that an eyewitness to the "Welsh Roswell" - the crash and burn of an alien spacecraft in North Wales’s Berwyn Mountains - has spoken out to dismiss the Ministry of Defence's explanation of the incident. Retired nurse and midwife Pat Evans, now 72, heard a “almighty bang” and saw "this …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2010, 11:30

  • Iran unveils 'robot bomber'

    Promises 'hard and extensive response' if Israel attacks

    The Iranian government has unveiled what it claims is a robotic bomber with enough range to - almost - reach Israel. The announcement came amid a flurry of statements promising dire retribution in the event of any attack on Iran. "The Karar bomber drone has numerous capabilities, namely having a long operational radius", …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 11:46

  • Google knits 11 patches into Chrome browser

    Stable version gets Boba Fett treatment

    Google applied patches to three critical and eight high risk vulns in a new iteration of its Chrome browser released late last week. As is standard practice at Mountain View, the company kept its reference bugs private while its users update Chrome with the fixes. "Aside from the listed security bugs fixed in Chromium, we …

    Applications 23 Aug 2010, 11:55

  • Aussie election results: Firewall wobbles

    What would make a coalition willing?

    With almost all of the election results in, the future of the great Australian firewall looks ever so slightly wobbly. Broadband for rural areas may however be about to receive a significant boost. Just 150 members sit in Australia’s parliament, so a party with 76 seats has a majority. With something like 80 per cent of the …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 12:05

  • Japanese press step into execution chamber

    Gallows visit likely to 'spark public debate'

    Japan's justice minister Keiko Chiba has invited the press to enter the Tokyo Detention Centre execution chamber, shortly after she personally attended the hanging of two convicted murderers. Chiba is a lawyer, former member of the Japan Socialist Party and personally opposed to capital punishment. When she came to office last …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 12:18

  • Demon summons up gamer-centric broadband plan

    Lower pings, latency promised

    Demon Internet has launched a low-latency broadband package aimed at gamers. The service, dubbed Demon Game Pro, is priced a £22 a month and brings 20Mb/s downstream and 1Mb/s upstream peak speeds, a static IP address - handy for game servers - and gaming traffic prioritisation. Subscribers also get a free wireless router, …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 12:20

  • BSkyB mulls UK Online closure

    All off to Sky broadband?

    BSkyB is considering closing UK Online, an ISP brand it acquired when it bought Easynet. The broadcaster says it hasn't yet decided what to do with UK Online's subscribers, but The Register understands the leading option is to shift them over to Sky broadband packages. An announcement is expected within the next month. UK …

    Telecoms 23 Aug 2010, 12:36

  • Barclays computer says d'oh!

    Saturday shopping fail

    Barclays customers were left without access to their accounts on Saturday thanks to a computer failure. Customers could not use ATMs or online banking thanks to a computer failure apparently caused by a power outage. The bank insisted the problem was fixed within 20 minutes - by about 1.50pm on Saturday. But some forum posters …

    CIO 23 Aug 2010, 12:38

  • HP sharp-elbows Dell to bid for 3PAR

    See you and raise you

    HP has written to 3PAR CEO David Scott offering to buy the company for $24/share, trumping Dell's $18/share bid. So much for HP's preference for HDS' USP-V technology, which it OEMs as its high-end XP array. HP's bid is worth $1.6bn, a third more more than Dell's bid. It has been approved by HP's board and there is no need to …

    Storage 23 Aug 2010, 12:46

  • A 3PARised HP lineup

    Whither EVA and XP?

    Suppose HP succeeds in buying 3PAR and its InServ arrays; what will that mean for the current EVA and XP storage arrays, block access devices that compete with 3PAR's T-Class (XP) and F-Class (EVA): The EVA is classic modular mid-range array technology which is evolving, it is generally understood, to becoming a set of storage …

    Blocks and Files 23 Aug 2010, 12:56

  • Biz services group borgs French distie

    Irish distie says oui

    Irish distributor and business services group DCC has bought French consumer distie Comtrade SA for €11.4m. Comtrade employs 65 people and flogs iPod docking stations, portable hard drives, speakers and other computer accessories. DCC group's Sercom division is moving to extend its product and market reach. The French firm …

    Channel Register 23 Aug 2010, 13:11

  • Once-in-a-lifetime gag tops Fringe quip list

    Tim Vine secures best joke crown

    Dave TV has honoured Tim Vine with its Joke of the Fringe award - the annual celebration of the Best of Edinburgh quippery. "Pun punditt" Vine beat off some stiff opposition with: ''I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again.'' Eight comedy critics sat through "60 performances, totalling 3 …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2010, 13:16

  • Samsung bounces out Bada SDK version 1

    No longer in beta

    Samsung has released version 1 of the Bada SDK, for all those developers who've been dying to develop for Bada but unwilling to run with the Beta release. It's hard to imagine that many people fall into that particularly category, but Samsung does remind us that entry to its Global Developer Challenge closes at the end of the …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 13:32

  • IM what IM

    Sysadmin blog OCS don't need excuses

    Office Communications Server (OCS) is one of Microsoft’s hidden gems. Everyone hears about Windows, Exchange and SQL Server, but you could be excused for never having heard of OCS, the evolution of Microsoft’s corporate instant messaging service. There are a lot of competitors, but OCS has excellent integration with Microsoft …

    Sysadmin blog 23 Aug 2010, 13:35

  • Previous HP bid for 3PAR rejected

    HP goes hostile

    In a webcast discussing HP's bid for 3PAR today, HP said it had made a previous offer for the company which had, instead, accepted a Dell offer. HP's David Donatelli, head of its Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networks division, said that HP had run due diligence on 3PAR before any publicity about a 3PAR acquisition and that …

    Blocks and Files 23 Aug 2010, 13:52

  • Aus gov, ISPs book seats for firewall demolition

    New filters to catch nasty stuff

    With the future of the great Australian firewall once more up for grabs, major ISPs are seeking to forestall government plans by announcing a filter of their own. However, unlike the government’s proposed filter, this one will apply specifically to sites identified as hosting child porn. Of three major ISPs identified by …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 14:11

  • Australian Sex Party stands proud

    Progressive support hardening, reactionaries limp into fifth place

    Despite its failure to win any seats in last week’s Australian General Election, the Australian Sex Party was today celebrating its arrival on the scene as the "Major Minor Party" of Australian politics. This claim is based on the fact that after Coalition, Labor and Greens, the Sex Party (ASP) is now neck and neck with Family …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 14:14

  • PARIS gets doped up

    High as a kite on nitrates

    The model aircraft enthusiasts following our Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme will be relieved to learn we've finally cracked the Vulture 1-X skinning poser. Last month we spent a not inconsiderable amount of time faffing about with various methods of cladding our aircraft, including a PVA/water mix applied …

    PARIS 23 Aug 2010, 14:19

  • Digital radio 'to miss Govt target by 3 years'

    Switchover in 2025?

    Digital radio listening won't hit the Government's 50 per cent target until 2018, according a new industry analysis - putting the great analogue switch-off in jeopardy. And when the big day arrives, most of that digital consumption will be via the interwebs and TV - not DAB radio. The figures can be found in analyst Grant …

    Music and Media 23 Aug 2010, 15:05

  • Scottish skies clear of giant vulture menace

    Gandalf recaptured with 'big duvet'

    The Ruppell's Griffon Vulture which went awol last week from a Cumbernauld bird of prey centre has been recaptured, the BBC reports. Gandalf, a seven-year-old female, soared away from World of Wings, prompting an alert that she posed "a genuine threat to airplanes". In the event, she managed to avoid a mid-air collision, and …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2010, 15:10

  • AMD nabs ex-Intel techie as server CTO

    Driving Bulldozers to the future

    Chip maker designer and seller Advanced Micro Devices said today that three weeks ago it nabbed Don Newell, a chip tech from rival Intel, to be its new chief technology officer for its server microprocessors. The server CTO position has been vacant in the wake of the launch of the "Istanbul" six-core Opteron launch last summer …

    Servers 23 Aug 2010, 15:13

  • Cleveland residents get RFID-equipped recycling

    Comply or pay the price

    Residents in Cleveland, Ohio, will have to ensure their recycling is out on time or face a $100 fine for failing to do their bit. RFID tags will be fitted to the recycling bins provide by the city council, and counted by passing rubbish-collection vans. Any residents whose recycling bin isn't on the curb over a couple of weeks …

    Environment 23 Aug 2010, 15:33

  • Vodafone volte-face on Galaxy S

    Did we say 'invalidate'?

    Vodafone tells us it will honour its warranty on Galaxy S handsets updated with firmware from Samsung, despite saying the opposite last week. Users running Samsung's desktop synchronisation software were offered the upgrade, to version "JM1", but those who took up the offer were later told through the Vodafone forum that they …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 15:54

  • Toshiba tablet snaps leak out

    Landscape orientation

    Italian website Notebook Italia has posted pics of what it claims is Toshiba's upcoming Android-based media tablet. Basically, it looks like an iPad. But there's one key difference: it's designed to be used in landscape mode. The iPad will happily auto-rotate from portrait to landscape and back again, and we're sure the …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 15:58

  • Intel: dual-core Atom netbooks on sale now

    N550 hits the shelves

    Intel today lauded the arrival of netbooks based on its new dual-core Atom processor, the N550. It named Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI and Toshiba as netbook manufacturers who are shipping N550-based machines "now and through the end of the year" - which essentially means you shouldn't expect to go out and buy …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 15:58

  • Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

    Review Enough to keep you out the heat?

    Remember Whac-a-Mole? Mole pops out of hole, bash with rubber mallet; mole pops out of hole, bash with rubber mallet; mole pops out... well, you get the picture. Roadkill I must have walked past the game a thousand times, but I only ever played it once. Like all Whac-a-Mole players, I think I smiled momentarily, in some …

    reghardware 23 Aug 2010, 16:07

  • US puts $30bn of IT projects up for review

    The stimulus and the stick

    President Obama giveth to the IT vendor community in the United States, and now maybe he is fixing to taketh away. Back in February 2009, when the new president was able to get the $787bn American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) through Congress to help get the US economy spending like the economic meltdown wasn't …

    Government 23 Aug 2010, 17:33

  • Microsoft's Apple revenge: the pleasure and the pain

    Radio Reg Schadenfreude offers no guarantees

    Steve Ballmer's summer has been dominated by Microsoft's delayed response to the iPad and iPhone. He reassured investors last month that Microsoft is energized and that nobody's sleeping until the job's done. That said, the Windows slates Ballmer touted as coming this Fall are unlikely to be running Windows 7 and won't be …

    Microbite 23 Aug 2010, 17:37

  • Cops cuff man who exposed holes in 'perfect' voting machines

    Expose a vuln, go to jail

    Indian authorities have arrested a computer scientist for refusing to divulge the source of an electronic voting machine that he and a team of researchers used to expose holes in the country's election system. The Hyderabad home of Hari Prasad, managing director of Netindia LTD, was raided on Saturday morning at 5:30 by …

    Crime 23 Aug 2010, 18:00

  • Halo: Reach leaked to net 3 weeks before release

    Plucked from Xbox Market

    The latest installment in the highly lucrative Halo game series for the Xbox 360 has been leaked to the internet three weeks before its official release date by fans who hacked a hair-brained method Microsoft used to secure review copies. Halo: Reach, the final chapter in the wildly popular first-person shooter series, is …

    Music and Media 23 Aug 2010, 19:51

  • Google Chrome OS tablet in repeat rumorfest

    Multitouch for 'gPad'

    Rumors continue to swirl around Google's efforts to challenge the Apple iPad. Last week, the AOL-owned Download Squad told the world that Google, Taiwanese hardware manufacturer HTC, and US wireless carrier Verizon will launch a Chrome OS tablet on November 26, and now, the Israel-based Haaretz claims that the so-called "gPad …

    Operating Systems 23 Aug 2010, 20:21

  • Google aims Goggles at Apple's iPhone

    Hot Chips Can frenemies cooperate?

    Google Lab's visual-search technology, Google Goggles, should be available for iPhone users later this year. "We're working on an iPhone version, and hope to have it out by the end of the year," David Petrou, a Google staff engineer working on the Goggles project, told his keynote audience at Monday's Hot Chips conference at …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2010, 20:32

  • OpenStack cloud fluffer does VirtualBox

    And Xen too

    OpenStack – the open source cloud computing fabric launched by NASA and Rackspace Hosting at the end of July – has added support for additional hypervisors. According to a blog post by Mark Collier, vice president of business and corporate development at Rackspace, Ewan Mellor (a coder from Citrix Systems) has tweaked the …

    Virtualization 23 Aug 2010, 22:14

  • OpenSolaris board commits ritual suicide

    Symbolic passing of power

    The OpenSolaris board has suspended operations and symbolically handed all responsibility for the open-variant of Solaris back to database giant Oracle. According to a blog post here: Be it Resolved that the OpenSolaris Governing Board hereby collectively and individually resigns, noting that under the terms of the …

    Operating Systems 23 Aug 2010, 22:17

  • Nokia Siemens slammed for supplying snoop tech to Iran

    'Monitoring centers' led to journo capture

    An Iranian journalist imprisoned in that country without trial since June 2009 is suing telecommunications concern Nokia Siemens for allegedly providing the surveillance equipment that led to his capture. Isa Saharkhiz went into hiding following Iran's 2009 presidential elections, after publishing an article branding the Grand …

    ID 23 Aug 2010, 22:55

  • Google tests 'streaming' search engine

    Results before you ask

    Google is testing a new incarnation of its search engine that rejiggers results pages as you type, according to a video captured by a UK-based SEO. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But judging from the video, Google refers to this as "streaming" search. As you key new characters into the search …

    Music and Media 23 Aug 2010, 23:49