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23rd September 2010 Archive

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  • Schmidt: 'Google doesn't do data mining'

    Er, is that a joke too?

    Google boss Eric Schmidt has claimed that his company doesn't "do data mining." But this may be some sort of joke. Schmidt was speaking on The Colbert Report, the famously satirical US current-affairs show, and apparently, even when he's speaking with The Wall Street Journal, there's no way of knowing whether he's earnest, …

    ID 23 Sep 00:28

  • Yahoo! opens chicken coop data center

    A chanticleer for efficiency

    If you happen to be driving towards Buffalo, New York and you spy some big ole commercial-grade chicken coops in the town of Lockport, those aren't chicken coops. They're Yahoo! server coops, the most efficient data centers the company has built thus far. As El Reg reported a little more than a year ago, Yahoo! had selected …

    Servers 23 Sep 04:00

  • CUDA daddy muses on future GPUs

    GTC 'G'bye CPU, we hardly knew ye'

    If you think of Nvidia as a hardware company, you're only three-quarters correct — at least according to Ian Buck, Nvidia's senior director of GPU computing software, who sees an even greater role for software as his company's products evolve. "It's important to note that software and hardware really are one," Buck told …

    Software 23 Sep 04:00

  • Egos clash in Larry's Oracle locker room

    OpenWorld Clouds, sails, and literature

    Two of techs biggest names - and egos - traded shots on Wednesday over clouds and books. Oracle chief Larry Ellison roasted Salesforce.com's chief executive Marc Benioff and slammed his service-as-a-service poster child, saying that the company runs "old" technology and that it polices customers' data using a "horrible" …

    Applications 23 Sep 04:04

  • DWP's Harley tops government CIO pay list

    9 gov IT managers paid more than PM

    Nine government IT managers earn more than the prime minister, according to information released by the BBC. Joe Harley, IT director general and chief information officer (CIO) for the Department for Work and Pensions, and John Suffolk, Cabinet Office CIO, have average salaries of £262,500 and £207,499 respectively. They are …

    Government 23 Sep 06:00

  • Ten... iPhone 4 accessories

    Product Round-up Add-ons for your Apple

    The fuss over ‘antennagate’ seems to have died down without damaging the reputation of the iPhone 4 too much - thanks, of course, to Apple’s decision to give away a few million free cases and bumpers. However, the new iPhone’s sleek design has inspired a wide range of other eye-catching and ingenious accessories as well, so here …

    reghardware 23 Sep 07:00

  • EU Parliament calls for pan-EU copyright law

    Current law 'not effective'

    The European Commission should create a directly enforceable EU-wide copyright law that could be used to bring copyright infringers to book, the European Parliament has said. Current law is not closely harmonised enough, it said. The Parliament has adopted a report from a French MEP which examined the state of intellectual …

    Law 23 Sep 07:54

  • Over half of all apps have security holes

    Dodgy development practices blamed

    More than half of all software applications failed to meet an acceptable level of security, according to a study based on real-world code audits by application security firm Veracode. Around 57 per cent of applications failed to pass muster when first submitted to Veracode’s cloud-based testing service. A similar 56 per cent …

    Enterprise Security 23 Sep 08:14

  • GPUs slick up with oil sleuths

    Mind-boggling data streams

    I stopped by the Oil & Gas track at the 2010 GPU Tech conference this morning and learned quite a bit about the key drivers on the exploration side of the industry. I already knew the key drivers on the distribution side of the business - potato chips, watery fountain drinks and herbal energy pills - but that was presumably …

    HPC Blog 23 Sep 08:52

  • GOG.com returns with site redesign

    Publicity seeking? Nevaaah...

    Online seller of past-their-prime games GOG.com is back, claiming not to have closed down but mere come out of beta status. Given GOG.com has been around for two years, that's one heck of a 'testing' phase - which just goes to show how misused and redundant the term has become these days. Rather than move from a closely …

    reghardware 23 Sep 09:07

  • Are you delivering IT and creating wiggle room?

    Workshop Making the business case for management tools

    According to Freeform Dynamics research, many IT departments are seeking to become better aligned with business needs and are looking to ensure that systems and IT resources are being deployed more dynamically to support fluctuating business goals. One of the critical success factors will be investing in up–to-date, and …

    Server Management 23 Sep 09:16

  • Marvell intros 1.5GHz tri-core ARM chip

    Boost for tablets, smartphones

    Chip maker Marvell has raised the prospect of faster tablets and smartphones by sampling what it claims is the world's first three-core ARM-based system-on-a-chip clocked at 1.5GHz - 50 per cent higher than today's leading phone CPUs. Only two of the Armada 628's three cores run at that speed, though - the third, "low power …

    reghardware 23 Sep 09:34

  • Windows Phone 7 up for grabs from 'excited' 3

    At least one user for Microsoft to claim...

    Want a Windows Phone 7? OK, how about if it was free? Thought you might change your mind. Well, network 3 is offering one to the first lucky punter it draws out of its virtual hat. It's not limiting the prize draw to its customers, but anyone currently with O2, Orange, T-Mobile or Vodafone is likely to receive suggestions that …

    reghardware 23 Sep 09:47

  • SwiftKey offers alternative for Android typists

    But Swype remains an OEM-only option

    Android users searching for a better keyboard can now buy SwiftKey, a word-prediction technology. This is good, because Swype will never be available that way. SwiftKey works by trying to guess what word the user is going to type next, a bit like Google Scribe, only useful. SwiftKey allows faster text entry for those who can …

    Mobile 23 Sep 09:54

  • Livedrive adds media streaming

    Remote music library

    Cloud storage service Livedrive is adding personal media streaming for subscribers at no extra cost. Users will be able to listen to their own music collections on a remote computer, with transcoding handled by Livedrive. Unlike many others in a crowded field, Livedrive doesn't offer a free service as bait - but it doesn't …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 10:00

  • Ad touts benefits of pubic school to South Benders

    Indiana bill board suffers lewd omission

    A billboard praising South Bend, Indiana's Public Schools last week missed a crucial ingredient - the letter L. The digital ad, which was promoting the southbendon.com website, went up last Thursday. One of its rotating messages encouraged motorists to go to the website to find out the "15 best things about our pubic schools …

    Bootnotes 23 Sep 10:05

  • Ellison winds up rivals with stack-in-a-box vision

    Opinion Boxes off Oracle OpenWorld

    Larry Ellison's closing Oracle OpenWorld keynote told customers to stop buying best-of-breed, cobbled-together IT systems; just buy a complete Oracle stack-in-a-box. Of course, if you want to run your Oracle software on Dell, HP or IBM servers with EMC or NetApp storage that's fine; you can do that, but just don't expect the …

    Storage 23 Sep 10:14

  • Bookeen debuts multi-touch e-book reader... with web browser

    Zut alors!

    Bookeen, the French manufacturer of e-book readers, will have a finger-friendly multi-touch model out next month. The Cybook Orizon will sport a 6in, 600 x 800, 167dpi e-paper screen and 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity, all in a 190 x 126 x 8mm casing - "thinner than a newspaper", Bookeen claims in its blog. Indeed, it claims …

    reghardware 23 Sep 10:14

  • Google responds to Czech ban

    We never done it or nothing

    Google's Czech tentacle has responded to yesterday's move by data protection regulators to stop the company collecting any more images for its Street View service in the country. The statement does not address data protection president Igor Němec's main complaint: that Google failed to register as a processor of personal …

    Law 23 Sep 10:17

  • UK.gov digital engagement director to retire

    Katie Davies steps up

    The government's director for digital engagement will retire at the end of 2010 after less than two years in the role. Andrew Stott was appointed in May 2009 to take forward the Labour government's Power of Information agenda, and has been based in the Cabinet Office. During a civil service career spanning 34 years he was …

    Government 23 Sep 10:36

  • US forces drop dead drug-poison killer mice from helicopters

    Gloves come off in Pacific jungle conflict

    The United States military is waging war in the Pacific on invading jungle snakes - by dropping dead mice stuffed with household headache remedies on them from helicopters. In you go, Fluffy Stars and Stripes reports on the airborne murine drug-zombie campaign being waged around US bases on the tropical island of Guam. Guam …

    Biology 23 Sep 10:49

  • IBM opens up vast market for GPU computing

    GTC Video Blog Nvidia talks Fermi blades

    Another action-packed day at the 2010 GPU Tech conference in San Jose. We sat down with Andy Keane, NVIDIA's GM of the Tesla GPU business unit and in our few minutes together, we talked about how the HPC system vendor announcements from IBM, Cray and T-Platform put the NVIDIA GPU in a different light for many potential buyers. …

    HPC Blog 23 Sep 10:50

  • Dell Streaks on stage

    CEO whips out seven-incher at Oracle Con

    Dell's 5in 'too big for a phone, too small for a tablet' Streak may not have generated the interest either the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab have, but that hasn't stopped the company's CEO showing off a 7in version. Michael Dell has a habit of whipping out products a month or so before they launch formally, so we can …

    reghardware 23 Sep 10:51

  • Automation - one step closer to lights out?

    Workshop Do you trust the tools?

    In an earlier article in this workshop we considered the challenges associated with procuring system management technologies. We know from our research amongst IT administrators that making a business case for systems management tools is rarely straightforward, even when major changes in the infrastructure or the way services …

    Server Management 23 Sep 10:57

  • MS offers Security Essentials to small business

    How do you compete with a freebie?

    Microsoft is extending the availability of its freebie Microsoft Security Essentials to small businesses from early next month. The application - which provides protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software - was launched as a basic scanner available to consumers at no charge last September. From October, …

    Enterprise Security 23 Sep 11:12

  • IPv6 uptake still slow despite looming address crunch

    Analysis Funding and expertise hard to come by

    Even though many ISPs have begun offering IPv6 services to customers, uptake and use of the next-generation internet technology remains low, according to a European Commission-funded study published last week. The most comprehensive survey of the subject to date found that misconceptions about the cost of deployment are …

    Telecoms 23 Sep 11:28

  • Facebook phone rears up again

    But what does it mean?

    Bloomberg has found three people supporting claims that Facebook plans to launch a branded phone next year, though the motivation behind such a move remains a mystery. It's not the first time the Facebook Phone has been rumoured, but such a phone has also been launched at least once when Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg …

    Mobile 23 Sep 11:30

  • World's first pedal-powered ornithopter takes flight in Canada

    Vid Sky-pedalo inventors get into a flap

    Canadian enthusiasts have finally achieved a feat that has eluded humanity's finest engineers since the time of Leonardo da Vinci - to build a machine, powered by a human pilot's muscles, which flies by flapping its wings: an ornithopter. The "Snowbird" man-powered ornithopter achieved its history-making flight last month …

    Science 23 Sep 11:32

  • Standivarius Aero fold-flat laptop stand

    Txt Take Product reviews in 140 characters or less

    Standivarius Aero Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget or accessory? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here. ®

    reghardware 23 Sep 11:42

  • Universities warn Willetts on science cuts

    80s-style brain drain ahead

    Jostling for cash ahead of the coalition government's slash-and-burn, six leading universities have told Science Minister David Willetts that the UK is at risk of losing its best researchers because of real or perceived shortfalls in funding. When Willetts gave evidence to the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology …

    Science 23 Sep 12:07

  • Dell Inspiron M101z 11.6in notebook

    Review Class-leading performance

    It's common to take a shiny new notebook out of the box, judge it to be worthy and then find that some aspect - performance, price or feel - rubs off the polish. Rare are machines like the Dell Inspiron M101z that leave you happy with your initial verdict. Well, almost... Dell's Inspiron M101z: compact performer The M101z …

    reghardware 23 Sep 12:11

  • Google whacks Spanish TV station in court

    'Big win for the internet', or YouTube at least

    A Madrid court has thrown out copyright infringement charges brought against YouTube by Spanish TV station Telecinco. The station, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, won a previous case against Google's video service in 2008. The court today dismissed charges and found it the responsibility of copyright owners to guard their own …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 12:16

  • T-Mobile cuts off dope-finding text service

    But only because it wasn't open

    T-Mobile has told a US court that EZ Texting was blocked for failing to notify the operator what it was doing, not because it was promoting the evil weed. According to a filing by the operator (pdf hosted by Wired), T-Mobile USA has stopped forwarding text messages from EZ Texting because it only had an agreement to send …

    Mobile 23 Sep 13:15

  • Zuckerberg leapfrogs Jobs on Americans' rich list

    Sent from my iPhone... bitch

    Facebook boydroid Mark Zuckerberg has more pennies in his piggy bank than Apple boss Steve Jobs, according to the latest Forbes rich list. According to Forbes 2010 rich list of the wealthiest Americans, 26-year-old Zuckerberg now has a net worth of $6.9bn. Of which $4bn was added to his personal treasury this year, pushing him …

    Bootnotes 23 Sep 13:21

  • No one needs Blu-ray, says Microsoft exec

    Format to be quickly superseded by downloads, streaming

    "Who needs Blu-ray?" asks Stephen McGill, the head of Microsoft UK's Xbox operation. No one, is his implicit answer. Interviewed recently by website Xbox 360 Achievements, McGill said in response to a question centred on the console's use of DVD storage: "Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through …

    reghardware 23 Sep 13:23

  • Über-zombie cookies give us the fear

    Say hello to invulnerable evercookies

    Privacy activists got hot under the collar about the use of flash cookies to respawn traditional website cookies* but an even more persistent type of cookie that's almost impossible to kill off may lie just around the corner. So-called in invulnerable evercookies use eight different techniques and locations to hide on tagged …

    ID 23 Sep 13:25

  • India bans mass messaging on mosque riot fears

    Keep the peace

    The Indian government has slapped a 72-hour ban on mass text messaging ahead of potentially volatile court verdict on Friday. A decision is due on the fate of a ruined mosque in Ayodhyra in Uttar Pradesh. Ayodrha was the scene of riots sparked by the destruction of the mosque which killed 2,000 people in 1992. The site is …

    Mobile 23 Sep 15:00

  • Microsoft secretly yanks TechNet product keys

    Even own staff think it's a bug

    Microsoft has quietly changed the terms of its TechNet subscription service by reducing the number of product keys made available for download to its users, The Register has learned. On 15 September Redmond lowered the number of product keys dished out to TechNet subscribers from 10 to a maximum of five, in Microsoft’s latest …

    Applications 23 Sep 15:11

  • Blockbuster winds itself into Chapter 11

    So I can keep that tape of Nine and a Half Weeks?

    Ageing slackers everywhere will be crying into their caramel popcorn today at the news that Blockbuster has slipped into Chapter 11 before forgetting what they were doing and walking over to the fridge for some cold pizza. The video rental chain, which was an essential part of early 1990s sofa culture, finally flaked out under …

    Financial News 23 Sep 15:20

  • Saatchis to pimp .xxx domains

    The old net porn system isn't w**king

    Renowned advertising agency M&C Saatchi is to take on the porn business, after agreeing to represent the proposed .xxx domain name operator, ICM Registry. The company is expected to launch a two-phase campaign, the first designed to help sell the purported benefits of the domain to a recalcitrant porn industry, the second to …

    Telecoms 23 Sep 15:45

  • Vacuum-wielding thieves siphon €500,000 from store safes

    Sucks to be them

    Thieves armed with little more than a drill and a powerful vacuum cleaner siphoned £60,000 out of a supermarket safe in France in what police said is the 15th such heist against the same store chain. The burglars have made off with €500,000 by exploiting a flaw in the security system of Monoprix, the chain that has been …

    Crime 23 Sep 17:10

  • Mozilla breeds Firefox for Palm HP webOS

    Homes in on Symbian

    Mozilla developer Dave Townsend has released a very early test version of Firefox for the Palm webOS – the mobile OS now owned by HP – and the open source outfit is considering a version of its Firefox Home syncing app for the Symbian platform. Earlier this week, the open source outfit announced that Townsend had released a …

    Applications 23 Sep 17:21

  • NextIO squeezes Nvidia GPUs into super-dense package

    Stack 'em and rack 'em

    One of the problems with GPU co-processors is that they don't fit well into existing server designs. The devices run hot and they can affect the performance and reliability of the servers you try to cram them into. NextIO, which has created a line of virtual I/O appliances, has jumped into the GPU racket and is now shipping …

    HPC 23 Sep 18:31

  • Google cools data center with bottom of Baltic Sea

    Newspaper destruction metaphor goes chillerless

    Google's new data center on the coast of Finland will be cooled entirely with sea water. The web colossus tells Swedish magazine Computer Sweden this is the first Google data center – and, to its knowledge, the only data center in the world – chilled solely with water from the sea. As Data Center Knowledge points out, this …

    HPC 23 Sep 19:44

  • IBM punts first z196 mainframes

    Swiss Re takes two

    Big Blue said today that it has shipped its first System zEnterprise 196 mainframe, and it is a whopper. In fact, IBM shipped two zEnterprise 196 boxes to Swiss Re, the Zurich-based re-insurer that is one of the few mainframe users in existence that predates IBM itself - Swiss Re is 147 years old, and IBM turns 100 next year …

    HPC 23 Sep 20:28

  • Sex, lies, and botnets: the saga of Perverted Justice

    Ex-vigilante vents DDoS fury over sham affair

    A computer programmer has been convicted of unleashing crippling attacks on rollingstone.com and other websites after they published a humiliating account of him engaging in an adulterous online affair with a fictitious woman. Bruce Raisley, 49, was found guilty of a single count of launching a malicious program that infected …

    Crime 23 Sep 20:50

  • Facebook on the blink for second time in two days

    Updated 'DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU?'

    Update (3:56pm Pacific): Facebook has apparently solved the problem that was preventing access to its site. The site appears to be operating normally. Facebook has acknowledged that at least some users had difficulty accessing its site on Thursday afternoon, a day after the site experienced similar but unrelated problems. "We …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 21:17

  • AMD chops Q3 sales forecast

    Consumer notebooks fall off the table

    Whatever Intel does, Advanced Micro Devices has to do it too. And vice versa. The chip designer and seller (but not maker) warned Wall Street after the markets closed today that its third quarter isn't looking so hot. AMD said that sales in the third quarter ending September 25 would be down between 1 and 4 per cent compared …

    Financial News 23 Sep 21:28

  • FCC rubberstamps rules for 'WiFi on steroids'

    How to fill the white spaces

    The FCC has approved the final rules for unlicensed access to the TV "white space" spectrum, paving the way for what is commonly called "WiFi on steroids." The commission has dropped the sensing requirement for white space devices, though we still don't know who gets to run national databases telling people what frequencies …

    Wireless 23 Sep 22:25

  • MySQL's non-heroic future runs Castle Oracle

    OpenWorld The price of 'victory' is Windows

    It's unheard of for a CEO to slip into his previous company's branded shirt and speak to users - unless the occasion is some kind of anniversary. Yet the ex-MySQL chief executive and former head of Sun Microsystems' MySQL unit did just that at OpenWorld - the come-to-Jesus mega event run by MySQL's new owner Oracle. Why would …

    Applications 23 Sep 23:45