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26th August 2010 Archive

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  • Apple kills Jailbreakme Mac bug

    RIP, browse-and-get-hacked vuln

    Apple has purged Mac OS X of a browse-and-get-hacked vulnerability that first came to light three weeks ago, when the popular Jailbreakme service used it to root fully patched versions of the iPhone. The buffer overflow flaw in an OS component that parses fonts was one of 13 vulnerabilities Apple fixed in an update released on …

    Security 26 Aug 04:02

  • Microsoft trips on Visual Studio Lightswitch

    Review Latter-day Access needs less code

    Microsoft's Visual Studio LightSwitch, just released to beta, is a new edition of Visual Studio 2010 and will become the next step up from the free Express. In other words, it will be paid-for but cost less than the existing Professional version. Do not be fooled though: although this is a low-end tool it is one with high …

    Developer 26 Aug 05:02

  • Red Hat plays Switzerland in balkanized cloud world

    APIs for everyone

    If you listen to all of the major cloudy infrastructure players - and some of the minor ones too - they all sound like they have all the answers and you need only come to them to solve all your fluffy IT problems. But no one actually has a complete cloudy stack. Even Red Hat, which tried again today to give that impression while …

    Servers 26 Aug 06:02

  • Samsung R780 17.3in laptop

    Review Big and beautiful?

    Samsung’s R780 has clearly been designed to get noticed. The glossy, deep-red chassis and slightly nauseating swirly line motif won’t appeal to those who like their laptops to be subtle, but it does make it stand out from the crowd. Personally speaking, I quite like it. That said, I also quite liked the design of Acer’s Ethos, …

    reghardware 26 Aug 07:02

  • Flyover states up attacks on Craigslist

    17 states call for end of adult ads

    Attorneys-general from 17 US states have signed an open letter to Craigslist calling for the immediate closure of its adult services section. The free ads site introduced manual screening of adverts by qualified attorneys in May but the lawyers insist this is not enough. Activists began the new round of attacks with half-page …

    Law 26 Aug 09:10

  • Half a hero biscuit for Microsoft

    Sysadmin blog Enjoyed installing OCS? Good, you may be reinstalling soon

    Neat as it is, Office Communications Server (OCS) is complicated. It has grown beyond being one application server into a collection of interlinked but separate application servers, each with their own requirements. There is a front-end server component, Web Conferencing, A/V Conferencing, Application Sharing, Communicator Web …

    Desktop Mgmt Blog 26 Aug 09:24

  • Iron-on armpit BO stench-filters 'ideal for modern lifestyle'

    'Teabag' pong-busters derived from military gasmasks

    The list of boons which military-driven R&D has conferred upon a suffering humanity is a long one: computers and their networks, aircraft, brass bands etc. But now warboffinry has truly penetrated deep into civilian life - even unto the actual armpits of ordinary consumers - to tackle one of the most fearsome scourges besetting …

    Bootnotes 26 Aug 09:35

  • NHS trust tags mentally ill offenders

    Vibrating anklets phone home

    The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is using satellites to track psychiatric patients with criminal convictions. The launch follows a successful 12 month pilot project in which 35 mentally ill patients at River House, a medium security psychiatric unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, took part. The …

    Mobile 26 Aug 09:59

  • Canon supersedes EOS 50D

    Update gets HD video, moveable LCD

    Canon has announced the latest addition to its EOS digital SLR range: the 18Mp 60D. The new model replaces the existing EOS 50D, Canon said. In addition to the extra millions of pixels on the sensor - the 50D was a 15Mp camera - the new model sports a moveable LCD. As before, the size is 3in, but this one has 1,040,000 dots - …

    reghardware 26 Aug 10:03

  • Just 5% of workers ever truly leave the office

    Holidays are for slackers

    Only 5.9 per cent of workers disconnect from the office while on leave, and 40 per cent have tried in-flight Wi-Fi to keep them connected. The figures come from iPass, provider of a single login for companies to provide internet access to their employees. That gives the company a huge quantity of analytical data, which it has …

    Mobile 26 Aug 10:07

  • LaCie ups compact hard drive to 1TB

    Small box, lots of storage

    LaCie has upgraded its compact, metal-clad Rikiki Go external hard drive to 1TB. The drives use USB 2.0 and sport a built-in cable attached to the side of the 110 x 75 x 13mm casing. The 1TB model joins existing 500GB drives available in blue, red and silver, though the new drive only comes in the latter colour. Availble …

    reghardware 26 Aug 10:12

  • Facebook death lists spook Colombian town

    100 teenagers named, three already killed

    The southwestern Colombian town of Puerto Asís is in a state of "panic and anxiety" after two death lists naming a total of 100 young people were posted on Facebook, warning them to get out of town within three days or face the consequences. The first list, featuring 69 males, appeared on 17 August, although two of those on it …

    Policing 26 Aug 10:20

  • How do you choose a hypervisor?

    Workshop Flexibility leads to complex choices

    We know that the majority of organisations that we survey have adopted server virtualisation to support their server consolidation activities, and are reaping benefits. However, there is more to server virtualisation than simply supporting the consolidation of workloads onto a reduced set of servers. Moving beyond mere …

    Server Management 26 Aug 10:21

  • Vulture 1: Plane plans planned

    Full constructional details on the drawing board

    The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team would like to assure readers that we will be providing full constructional details of the Vulture 1 aircraft - just as soon as the thing's finished In response to requests for plans of the beast, we've enlisted some top-notch illustrative and CAD operatives to make sure that …

    PARIS 26 Aug 10:26

  • Pundits predict plunging iPad market share

    Need Apple worry? Nah

    Acer's chairman JT Wang may believe Apple's share of the tablet market may shortly plunge to between 20 and 30 per cent, but market watcher iSuppli doesn't see it falling below 60 per cent, for the next few years at least. Wang argues that the arrival of a fleet of Android-based tablets from his company and others will …

    reghardware 26 Aug 10:47

  • Microsoft bats out first Exchange 2010 service pack

    Webby Outlook gets UI tweak for netbooks

    Redmond released the first service pack for its Exchange 2010 software yesterday. The update comes just four months after Microsoft first revealed its plans for the Exchange 2010 SP1 in April. It dished out a beta of the service pack to its TechEd subscribers in June this year. Microsoft has slotted updates and bug fixes …

    Operating Systems 26 Aug 11:10

  • LG: big, bendy e-paper screens out by year's end

    Impervious to chip fat, vinegar?

    LG's display developing subsidiary will begin mass-producing 9.7in colour e-paper panels and 19in monochrome but flexible e-paper screens by the end of the year. LG Display, which makes the 9.7in in-plane switching (IPS) LCD screen used in the Apple iPad, made the forecast in its latest filing with the US Securities and …

    reghardware 26 Aug 11:11

  • Coca-Cola and Facebook get touchy with Israeli teens

    Tagging the youth for fun and profit

    Coca-Cola is offering wrist bands to those attending the Village festival in Israel so they can update their Facebook status with a tap of the hand. That tap has to be against one of the huge "Like" buttons Coca-Cola has erected around the site, though tags are recorded as youth pass the festival gates too, so organisers can …

    Mobile 26 Aug 11:27

  • Court of Appeal challenges parallel import blocking

    Oracle's victory should be 'set aside'

    Brand owners may have less power to prevent sales in Europe of goods intended for other markets after a ruling by England's Court of Appeal this week. The judgment over the sale of Sun-branded disk drives is likely to be welcomed by independent resellers. In 2009 Sun Microsystems won the right to block the sale of 64 disk …

    Channel Register 26 Aug 11:33

  • More Bull grunt for Blighty's atom-bomb factory

    Xeon drives UK, French nukes: US favouring Opteron

    French-centred IT provider Bull has announced an order from the UK's nuclear weapons apparatus for a third bullx supercomputer. The new "Blackthorn" machine will join two existing bullx "Willows" already in use by the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). "The contract with AWE is a clear demonstration of Bull's ability to …

    Servers 26 Aug 11:46

  • Adobe sucks up to Oracle over FOSS boss gripes

    Throw that man down a mine shaft!

    Adobe has distanced itself from less-than-pretty comments made against Oracle by the Flash and Photoshop vendor’s open source boss. As we reported earlier this week, Adobe’s open source and standards director David McAllister couldn’t resist hitting out at Larry Ellison’s firm, which earlier this year bought Sun Microsystems …

    Applications 26 Aug 12:22

  • ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC!

    'Software error' sends droid off military reservation

    A software error, combined with an unfortunate user action, led to a US military robot helicopter - developed from a manned version and capable of carrying a fearsome arsenal of weapons - straying into restricted airspace near Washington DC, according to reports. La la la, I'm not listening Mr Fleshy US Navy captain Tim …

    Software 26 Aug 12:26

  • Thai mobe outfit warns of deadly roaming charges

    Deactivate voicemail, or suffer the consequences

    A round of applause today for Thai operator TrueMove and its refreshing honesty about the potentially deadly effects of mobile phone bills. Proceed if you will to the company's website, and click on the button shown here to discover just what could happen if you attempt to access voicemail while wandering foreign shores. Or …

    Mobile 26 Aug 12:41

  • Internet, China and Russia destroying US, rock and roll

    How did Nicks and Mellencamp get so paranoid?

    An ageing and increasingly cantankerous rock aristocracy is pointing its arthritic fingers at the internet, blaming it for destroying America, and even more worryingly, rock and roll. Fleetwood Mac songstress Stevie Nicks told the New York Daily News this week that the net "has destroyed rock. Children no longer develop social …

    Bootnotes 26 Aug 12:43

  • Dell bids high for 3PAR, gets a 'yes'

    Knocks HP back

    3PAR has said 'yes' to Dell after the PC firm raised its bid for the storage vendor to $24.30/share beating HP's rival bid by just 30 cents. Dell first bid $18/share and this was accepted by 3PAR on 16 August. HP then re-entered the fray with a $24/share bid, having previously negotiated but dropped out some two weeks before …

    Storage 26 Aug 13:42

  • Pro-Palestine hackers spraypaint gov training quango

    National Skills Academy bitten by JaCKal

    A government training organisation - the National Skills Academy - has had its home page hacked and replaced by a message supporting Palestine. Much of the rest of the site is still working but the front page has been replaced with a picture of a container ship with Gaza on the side and a gloating message from hacker JaCKal. …

    Enterprise Security 26 Aug 14:09

  • HDS exec launches vicious attack on IBM storage exec

    Slams ex-colleague as 'egotistical, greedy and arrogant'

    A senior Hitachi Data Systems executive has launched an extraordinarily aggressive attack on IBM Fellow Moshe Yanai, the inventor of EMC's Symmetrix platform and pioneer of XIV and Diligent, both companies which IBM bought. Yanai has been working for IBM, as an IBM Fellow, since the XIV purchase. However, there have been …

    Storage 26 Aug 14:18

  • Doctor Wii game comes to the Nintendo Who

    Manipulate Amy Pond with your WiiMote

    Doctor Who is a kids' programme, right? Which no doubt explains why developer Asylum Entertainment is bringing out a couple of Who games for Nintendo's Wii and DS. Both feature Doctor number eleven and leggy sidekick Amy Pond, pitching the pair of 'em against the Daleks and the Cybermen. Doctor Who: Return to Earth is the …

    reghardware 26 Aug 14:57

  • Drunken employee pops cap in server

    $100k box versus .45 calibre round

    An employee of a Salt Lake City mortgage company allegedly got drunk and popped a cap in the firm's $100k server, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Joshua Lee Campbell, 23, had apparently been enjoying a few liveners with a fellow worker at the Twilight Concert in Pioneer Park, and later nipped back to work to shoot the server …

    Bootnotes 26 Aug 15:00

  • Microsoft gets Speedos in a twist over half-naked 'Meter Maids'

    TechEd Oz targets women in IT - and bikinis

    Microsoft has upset a bunch of bikini-clad Aussie “Meter Maids”, after a promotional stunt backfired on the company. The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that Microsoft had hired the women to appear at its TechEd conference on the Gold Coast. Some of the 2,700 attendees at the event grumbled that the half-naked ladies' …

    Bootnotes 26 Aug 15:26

  • PC World, Currys to offer cash for clunkers

    At least 50 quid off your old (working) computer

    Want a new notebook, netbook or desktop? Dixons stores PC World and Currys are both offering a "guaranteed" £50 off any new machine when you hand over your old one. Wintel or Mac, it doesn't matter. The stores' only stipulation is that your old computer has to capable of being switched on and running. Otherwise, its age is of …

    reghardware 26 Aug 15:34

  • Asus unwraps dual-core Atom netbook

    One with a proper, mobile CPU, this time

    Asus has outed its first netbook based on the just-announced dual-core Atom N550 processor. Step forward, the Eee PC 1015PEM, which combines Asus' curvy seashell design with said 1.5GHz CPU, 1GB of DDR 3, 160-320GB of hard drive storage, 802.11n Wi-Fi and all the usual netbook portage. Well, almost - this boy has a pair of …

    reghardware 26 Aug 15:59

  • HP builds out cloudy wares with Stratavia buy

    We don't own databases, we automate them

    Hewlett-Packard has snapped up a database and application automation company called Stratavia for an undisclosed sum. Stratavia was founded in 2001 by database experts Venkat Devraj and Rainier Luistro, who wanted to create a set of tools to automate how databases are managed. The company was originally called ExtraQuest, and …

    Applications 26 Aug 16:13

  • H.264 answers Google's open codec with forever free license*

    * Free forever for free video only

    Update: This story has been updated to show that the MPEG-LA's license change applies to free video broadcasts, not applications that encode and decode video. MPEG-LA — the organization that oversees the H.264 video codec on behalf of patent holders such as Apple and Microsoft — has made its latest move in what's shaping up to …

    Music and Media 26 Aug 17:07

  • Moshe Yanai has left IBM

    Pursuing other interests

    Moshe Yanai, the founder of EMC's Symmetrix product, storage company XIV and co-founder of Diligent, has left IBM. An IBM spokeswoman said: "Moshe Yanai left IBM to pursue other interests. IBM appreciates Moshe's contributions to the company. XIV is an important part of IBM's storage portfolio. In fact, XIV added more than 130 …

    Blocks and Files 26 Aug 17:46

  • Boffins build lie detector for crooked CEOs

    Beware of bosses who say f**k a lot

    Researchers have developed a method of rooting out fraudulent financial statements based on the statements CEOs and CFOs make during quarterly earnings calls. The system was developed by researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business by analyzing the conference-call transcripts of companies that went on to report a …

    Science 26 Aug 18:15

  • Google spotlights real-time search engine

    Standalone Tweetbook feed

    Google has given its Twitter-inspired "real-time" search results their very own webpage. Previously, the search and ads giant served up such ultra-fresh links alongside all its other results, but it's now providing a dedicated portal for those seeking stuff recently posted to Twitter, Facebook, other "social" services, blogs, …

    Music and Media 26 Aug 19:16

  • Apple files chip block stack patent

    Beyond the A4

    Apple has filed a patent application that supports the stacked-component design of its A4 chip used in the iPad and iPhone 4, and points to further future integration of multiple system components on the same die. The filing, "Systems and methods for providing a system-on-a-substrate," describes methods for reducing the size …

    Music and Media 26 Aug 19:26

  • Server biz recovery lags in Europe

    But up is still up

    The server racket has been recovering in the second quarter, but in Western Europe, spending was affected by faltering economic conditions in some countries and ongoing concern about how all members of the euro zone will be affected. According to the latest statistics from Gartner, worldwide server spending was up 14.3 per …

    Financial News 26 Aug 20:18

  • Police extend detention of e-voting critic

    'Conspiracy to discredit' elections probed

    A computer scientist who exposed serious vulnerabilities in India's electronic voting machines will remain in police custody until at least Saturday, seven days after he was arrested, news websites reported. A metropolitan court magistrate in Mumbai on Thursday denied a motion to release Hari Prasad on bail before August 28. …

    Crime 26 Aug 20:21

  • Sumo scandal gets iPad relief

    'Too fat to text' no longer excuse

    The gloriously corpulent cadre of Japanese ring warriors known in the West as sumo wrestlers and in their home country as rikishi have a new tool to help them communicate among themselves: the iPad. The Telegraph reports that the Japan Sumo Association has distributed 60 iPads to members of its stables — yes, that's what sumo- …

    Bootnotes 26 Aug 21:07

  • Mozilla shrugs off 'forever free' H.264 codec license

    Uh, will H.264 even be relevant in 4 years?

    Update: This story has been updated to show that the MPEG-LA's license change applies to free video broadcasts, not applications that encode and decode video. Mozilla vice president of engineering Mike Shaver has questioned the importance of the forever free H.264 license introduced this morning by the MPEG-LA, the organization …

    Music and Media 26 Aug 21:11

  • Novell misses Q3 revenue and profit targets

    VMware deal will not save the day

    The uncertainty over the future of Novell continued to weigh on the company as it reported disappointing financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 ended July 31. Novell, the maker of the venerable NetWare operating system and GroupWise collaboration software, has bought its way into many adjacent markets, …

    Financial News 26 Aug 22:34