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28th September 2010 Archive

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  • BlackBerry tablet boots from 'floppy disk OS'

    BlackBerry DevCon QNX microkernel lives

    The BlackBerry Playbook – RIM's answer to the Apple iPad — is sure to have a certain cachet among aging techies. The 7-inch tablet is based on QNX, the UNIX-esque microkernel operating system that famously booted — graphical user interface, networking, and all — from a single 1.44MB floppy drive. RIM acquired QNX this past …

    Operating Systems 28 Sep 2010, 00:27

  • Apple iAds soar as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! sink

    Don't fight. There's enough for everyone (for now)

    Apple's iAd mobile-advertising platform is tearing hefty chunks out of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft's mobile-ad market share — and it has only been up and running for less than three months. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, info provided by market intelligence firm IDC indicates that iAd — announced in April of this year …

    Music and Media 28 Sep 2010, 03:33

  • New regulator takes over video-on-demand content supervision

    ATVOD and ASA team up

    Regulation of television and video content delivered over the internet has now passed to the Association for Television On-Demand, or ATVOD, a former trade body turned regulator. New structures put in place to ensure that the UK complies with EU rules came into force on 20 September. ATVOD is now the regulator for content …

    Government 28 Sep 2010, 06:00

  • Olympus LS-5 linear PCM recorder

    Review Sound idea?

    The Olympus LS-5 is a solid-state stereo audio recorder with 2GB internal storage and support for SDHC card expansion up to 32GB. About the size of a domestic phone, it looks the business and also looks strikingly similar to the LS-10 Reg Hardware reviewed a couple of years ago. Indeed, the blue hue of the LS-5 is really the …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 07:00

  • OpenOffice files Oracle divorce papers

    Uncertainty breeds mistrust

    Open sourcers have seized control of the OpenOffice project and product and declared their independence from database giant Oracle. The OpenOffice.org Project has unveiled a major restructuring that separates itself from Oracle and that takes responsibility for OpenOffice away from a single company. Oracle had been OpenOffice …

    Software 28 Sep 2010, 07:00

  • WIN! a Plantronics Explorer 240 Bluetooth headset

    Giveaway Kit up for grabs

    Plantronics' Explorer 240 headset is one the sonic specialist's latest Bluetooth audio offerings, and Reg Hardware has two to give away to two lucky readers. Plantronics says the 240 is easy to use, ergonomic, reliable and - crucially - comfortable, making it darn handy for taking calls when you need to keep your hands free, …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 07:32

  • Logica salvages gov contracts

    'Savings', not cuts

    Logica has signed an agreement with the coalition government which should save its existing contracts, although it has agreed to some cuts - or "efficiency savings". The reseller said the scale of cuts was within forecasts and therefore its targets for the year were unchanged. Logica said it had been in discussions with …

    Government 28 Sep 2010, 08:05

  • Virgin Media launches 3D movie rentals

    For the few with 3D TVs

    Virgin Media is to join Sky and launch a channel of 3D content for the one bloke who bought a 3D TV. Having lashed out a grand or three on said screen, plus a couple of hundred pounds more for the specs, he can now have the pleasure of paying VM for a subscription and V HD or V+ HD set-top box. The operator's 3D movies with …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 09:13

  • Battle of the US super-soldier robot suits hots up with XOS 2.0

    Vid Exoskeleton boffin: 'If only arc reactors were real'

    Two rival firms in the USA are vying to develop military exoskeletons - powerful motorised robotic suits intended to endow soldiers of the future with superhuman strength and other abilities. The XOS inventors from Utah, generally seen as running second to California's HULC*, have now rolled out a new "second generation" version …

    Science 28 Sep 2010, 09:15

  • Is your server estate becoming too complex to manage?

    Workshop Time to get a bloke in. But who? And why?

    In earlier articles in this workshop we reported on research carried out by Freeform Dynamics that organisations are not entirely happy with the systems management tools available to them to help administer the IT infrastructure in day-to-day service delivery. At the same time, we know that operations staff are working under …

    Server Management 28 Sep 2010, 09:30

  • French cops take down mobile phone hacking ring

    Pick a number, any number

    French police have arrested nine people, including mobile telco employees, suspected of running a multi-million Euro telecom charges fraud that may have been going for almost a decade. The alleged scam involved the alleged purchase of codes to unlock SIM cards for as little as €3 from corrupt phone company employees, before …

    Enterprise Security 28 Sep 2010, 09:31

  • HP won't license WebOS, says exec

    Make the same mistake Palm did? No way

    HP will not license WebOS to rival smartphone and tablet vendors, the head of the company's PCs and gadgets division has said. Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference yesterday, Todd Bradley, executive VP of HP’s Personal Systems Group, emphatically said the company will not make the operating system, acquired when HP …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 09:42

  • Facebook staff get stuck into NFC

    Doing the Bling (Nation) thing

    Facebook staff are getting NFC stickers to attach to their phones as the company joins PayPal in trialling Bling Nation's proximity payment system. The trial already covers Stanford University and the City of Palo Alto, and uses stickers with embedded Near Field Communications tags, as reported by NFC World. Now Facebook staff …

    Mobile 28 Sep 2010, 09:45

  • LG launches almost full HD 3D laptop

    Nearly there, guys...

    So near - and yet so far. LG today cheerfully announced the "world's first premium notebook" capable of "offering cinematic 3D experience at near Full HD quality". Near full HD? So almost - but not quite - 1080p. Better than 720p, possibly, but not 1080p. Talk about damning yourself with faint praise. The A510 probably isn' …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 09:57

  • Sony Ericsson screens wireless display for phones

    For out-of-sight Androids

    Sony Ericsson is to answer everyone who wants a second, separate mini display for their mobile phone. As if whipping out your handset wasn't easy enough, SE's LiveView allows you to leave that oh-so-large 3.5in touchscreen in your pocket or bag while you glance instead at LiveView's 1.3in, 128 x 128 OLED panel. LiveView …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 10:28

  • Larry wants triple money back from Micron

    The overpriced chips are down

    "You over-charged us. We want triple damages." That's the essence of an Oracle lawsuit against Micron, filed last Friday in San Jose. As reported by Bloomberg, Oracle, the well-known touchy-feely company, claims Micron over-charged it when its acquired Sun business bought some $2bn of DRAM chips in the 1998 - 2002 period. In …

    Channel Register 28 Sep 2010, 10:30

  • Spamhaus debuts whitelist service

    Invite only list aims to ease junk mail filtering workload

    Anti-spam researchers at the Spamhaus Project have introduced a whitelist of known benign internet mail servers. The approach sits alongside Spamhaus' well-established blacklist of bad mail servers to make it easier for mail server operators to filter junk from incoming email traffic. Qualified corporations such as banks, law …

    Enterprise Security 28 Sep 2010, 10:36

  • iPhone fanbois run off road in CoolBrand race

    Aston Martins more desirable than a fondle slab

    Fanbois will be crying tears of frustration over their iPhones today at the revelation they no longer possess the UK's most coveted product. The CoolBrands survey, which delineates the most desirable consumer brands, has declared Aston Martin is this year's coolest brand, driving the iPhone off the number one spot. Apple fans …

    Bootnotes 28 Sep 2010, 10:39

  • MS-backed CodePlex Foundation morphs into Outercurve

    'We don't want to be confused with our sponsors'

    A Microsoft-sponsored not-for-profit organisation that champions open source projects between the FOSS community and software coders has rebranded itself apart from Redmond’s Codeplex.com platform. The CodePlex Foundation has ended confusion about being part of Microsoft’s CodePlex project, by opting for the new Outercurve …

    Developer 28 Sep 2010, 10:44

  • Iowa police mugshot exposes world's worst tattoo

    Radio station human billboard becomes net celeb

    Spare a thought if you will today for David Jonathan Winkelman, a 48-year-old Iowa man whose arrest last week for failing to appear in court to answer a minor misdemeanor charge prompted his rapid elevation to net celebrity. The reason for Winkelman's fifteen minutes of fame is pretty clear, because the silly sod's mugshot …

    Bootnotes 28 Sep 2010, 10:49

  • RIM CEO says lawful intercept is not his problem

    Governments should ask companies for the keys

    RIM would be happy to help companies hand encryption keys to national governments, according to CEO Jim Balsillie who reckons that's the ideal solution to the lawful-intercept problem. Governments should ask companies for their encryption keys, and keep a central register to enable legal interception of communications, …

    Mobile 28 Sep 2010, 11:02

  • RBS swings axe at another 500

    21,500 jobs cut since 2009

    State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting another 500 jobs from its investment banking division. The bank was unable to say if IT jobs would be hit. The bank is already looking for 1,000 to leave its technology services division. Negotiations with staff and unions are still ongoing but insiders have told The Register that …

    Financial News 28 Sep 2010, 11:04

  • PARIS launch go for 23 Oct

    Where? Click here to find out

    The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team is delighted to announce today that the launch of our Vulture 1 aircraft will take place on Saturday, 23 October. That date, of course, depends on the weather, but if it's a no-go on the day, we'll send the balloon skywards on the first available opportunity thereafter. Now …

    PARIS 28 Sep 2010, 11:10

  • Baby Boomers committing suicide at unprecedented rates

    Jammiest generation that ever lived finds life too cruel

    The Baby Boomers - the generation born after the Second World War, who were hippies and flower children in the 1960s and 70s, corporate greedheads in the 1980s, who controlled western civilisation through the 90s and noughties and are now reaching retirement age - are committing suicide in unprecedented numbers. The suicide …

    Science 28 Sep 2010, 11:26

  • Palin webmail hacker conviction upheld

    More than a prank

    The conviction of a former University of Tennessee student for breaking into Sarah Palin's webmail account during the 2008 presidential election campaign has been upheld. David Kernell was found guilty of computer hacking and obstruction of justice at a trial in April, during which he was acquitted of identity theft and wire …

    Crime 28 Sep 2010, 11:38

  • Copper prices push cable thefts to new high

    £35m swiped since 2006

    Network Rail is suffering its highest ever levels of copper theft - mostly signalling cables running alongside tracks. The thefts have waxed and waned with the price of copper but thieves have swiped £35m worth of copper from Network Rail since 2006. The company warns thefts could total £20m a year by 2014 if nothing is done …

    Crime 28 Sep 2010, 11:40

  • WD Livewire four-port powerline Ethernet adaptor

    Review One plug to feed them all

    As more and more set-top boxes, TVs and Blu-ray players gain the ability to reach out to the internet for content, your average one-port powerline Ethernet adaptor just won't cut it any longer. WD's Livewire: power cable in at one end... Case in point: I have an internet TV and an Apple TV box in my living room, and all of …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 12:01

  • Dell gets busy with GPUs

    GTC Video Blog Surprisingly innovative

    Okay, let’s put it on the table: when the conversation turns to cutting-edge x86 server design and innovation, the name “Dell” doesn’t come up all that often. Their reputation was made on delivering decent products quickly at a low cost. I see that opinion in all of our x86 customer-based research - it’s even something that Dell …

    HPC Blog 28 Sep 2010, 12:02

  • Coming soon: Mark Zuckerberg the comic-book hero

    Creator of Facebook... bitch

    Fans of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg will be delighted to learn that the gazillionaire internet genius and philanthropist will shortly be getting the comic book treatment in Bluewater Productions' snappily-titled Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook. The 48-page graphic title promises a balanced view of Zuckerberg's ascent …

    Bootnotes 28 Sep 2010, 12:03

  • Vodafone's 360 man walks

    Who's going to run the internet now?

    Pieter Knook, Vodafone's Director of Internet Services, has walked, after tweeting his anticipation of his "freedom" last week and leaving the operator with little in the way of internet services. Pieter Knook was nicked from Microsoft in 2008, and made head of the newly-formed Vodafone Internet Services Division. Those …

    Mobile 28 Sep 2010, 12:23

  • Viking Modular busts SAS SSD price premium

    Comment Seeing artificial premium over SATA SSDs

    Viking Modular wants to sell a heck of a lot more SAS interface solid state drives (SSD) by cutting what it says is the artificially high price premium they enjoy over SATA SSDs. The company, a division of Sanmina-SCI, announced a pair of SAS interface solid state drives (SSDs) a week or so ago and the performance numbers have …

    Storage 28 Sep 2010, 12:29

  • But it said so in the manual

    Sysadmin blog NTFS limits provoke scoffs, RAM purchases

    Working with 60 million files pushes the boundaries of any storage. Windows underpins most of my storage and so the theoretical and practical limitations of NTFS and Distributed File System Replication (DFSR), and the difference between theoretical and practical limits on the number and size of files they handle, are important …

    Sysadmin blog 28 Sep 2010, 12:41

  • ICO lets police maintain ANPR location secrecy

    Failed to comply, but no action needed

    The Information Commissioner's Office has decided against forcing police to disclose the locations of vehicle tracking cameras. The ICO said that Devon and Cornwall Police was correct in refusing to provide the locations of automatic numberplate recognition cameras (ANPR) that it ran in its area following a Freedom of …

    Law 28 Sep 2010, 13:11

  • No cassette required: ZX Spectrum games on the iPhone

    Retro games in 21st century wrapping

    Mobile games publisher Elite Systems today announced a bundled release of Sinclair ZX Spectrum games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Approved by Apple earlier today, ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection (Vol. 1) is a bundle of officially-licensed games first developed for the popular 8-bit 80s home computer. The titles feature game …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 13:23

  • Monkey squad sent in to secure Commonwealth Games

    Security duties only - no building or cleaning work

    Indian authorities have drafted in a crack troop of monkeys to guard foreign athletes amidst the ongoing carnage of the Delhi Commonwealth Games. AFP reports that New Delhi council has drafted in ten langur monkey handlers fielding as many as 38 of the fearsome primates. While the key image of the Games so far is of …

    Bootnotes 28 Sep 2010, 13:24

  • ACS:Law's mocking of 4chan could cost it £500k

    Doin' it for the lulz

    Off-the-cuff bravado aimed at internet pranksters has led to what must already rank as one of the worst ever data leaks, by the anti-filesharing solicitors ACS:Law. The personal details of thousands of ISP customers accused of unlawfully sharing pornography, as well as video games, are now freely available online. The …

    Law 28 Sep 2010, 13:46

  • Pirate Bay appeal begins without full defence line-up

    Svartholm Warg struck down with parrot fever in Cambodia?

    The Pirate Bay appeal in Sweden got underway this morning, but only three of the four men found guilty in April 2009 of being accessories to breaching copyright laws turned up in court. Gottfrid Svartholm Warg failed to show up at the hearing in Stockholm’s Svea Court of Appeal, the Associated Press reported. Svartholm Warg’s …

    Music and Media 28 Sep 2010, 13:56

  • Nortel flogs switch biz to Ericsson

    Swedes stump up $65m

    Nortel has sold its multi-service switching business to Ericsson for $65m. The deal, which will need approval from the bankruptcy courts, gives Ericsson most of the MMS business, along with Data Packet Network and Services Edge Router products and associated intellectual property. Customer contracts and most staff will also …

    Data Networking 28 Sep 2010, 14:07

  • Sony Ericsson confirms Symbian spurning

    Our Android army is all we need

    Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it has no plans to make more handsets based on Symbian, which shouldn't surprise anyone but is still bad news for the dominant smartphone OS. Sony Ericsson did make some nice Symbian handsets in its time, but had clearly moved over to Android along with most of the industry (Nokia excepted), so …

    Mobile 28 Sep 2010, 14:19

  • Sky talks up 3D channel attractions

    If there's nothing on the other side...

    Hot on the heels of rival telly transmitter Virgin Media, Sky has announced what its 3D channel, which launches later this week, will offer. Films due to be beamed over in 3D include Ice Age, Dawn of The Dinosaurs, Monsters vs Aliens, Coraline, Alice In Wonderland, Bolt, Fly Me To The Moon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 14:24

  • Microsoft to hug fanbois on 26 October with Office 2011 for Mac

    Signed, sealed, (nearly) delivered, I'm yours

    Microsoft will release Office for Mac 2011 on 26 October, after shipping the software to manufacturers earlier this month. Apple fans can start pre-ordering the suite of productivity apps from today via Amazon.com, Microsoft said. The vendor also got a bit overexcited in the upcoming release about two new features it hadn’t …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 14:53

  • App steers cyclists away from traffic, upward inclines

    Downhill racing

    Bicycle trade organisations have commissioned a satnav app that, they claim, steers cyclists away from busy roads and shortens journey times. The Bike Hub Cycle Journey Planner shows bicycle-friendly shortcuts that avoid traffic congestion and gives priority to downhill routes. A bike shop locator displays directions to …

    reghardware 28 Sep 2010, 14:59

  • IBM back in networking

    BNT its cutting edge

    IBM is buying Ethernet switching company Blade Networking Technologies and so returning to the networking business. Why? Big Blue says "BLADE specializes in software and devices that route data and transactions to and from servers." With Blade; "IBM can drive innovation at the systems networking level to enable clients to …

    Blocks and Files 28 Sep 2010, 15:03

  • Apple COO Cook to take the HP helm?

    Updated Wall Street worried? Not HPers vying for the job

    What kind of fool would leave Apple's second-in-command job to run Hewlett-Packard? Probably not chief operating officer Tim Cook, but that is the rumor running around the Intertubes right now, and it has spooked Wall Street. HP is hosting its financial analysts meeting in Palo Alto this afternoon, local Silicon Gulch time, …

    Financial News 28 Sep 2010, 15:11

  • Stuxnet worm can reinfect PCs even after disinfection

    Beware of poisoned Step7 files

    A security researcher has found yet another way the Stuxnet worm infiltrates computers used in nuclear plants and other industrial facilities, a technique that has the ability to reinfect machines even after they've been cleaned of the malware. Stuxnet has already proven itself as one of the most sophisticated pieces of known …

    Malware 28 Sep 2010, 18:17

  • Amazon browserizes Kindle book samples

    Enlists authors in ebook war

    Amazon is calling upon its army of Kindle-based authors to help it in its battle for the eyeballs of the reading public. Its new weapon: Kindle for the Web. "Kindle for the Web is ... a great way for bloggers and authors to promote books on their websites by letting visitors read a chapter without leaving their site," said …

    Music and Media 28 Sep 2010, 18:26

  • CA Tech snaps up Hyperformix

    Hyperventilating for cloudy control

    Tuesday, CA Technologies snapped up Hyperformix, a server virtualization capacity management tool maker based in Austin, Texas. Maybe the former Computer Associates should have changed its name to Cloudy Automation instead of CA Technologies when it rebranded itself a few months back. CA Tech has been on the prowl to build …

    Virtualization 28 Sep 2010, 18:31

  • NetApp and TMS involved in Virgin Blue outage

    Airline reservation system down for 21 hours

    Virgin Blue has fingered Texas Memory Systems as the cause of its 21-hour airline reservation system crash in Australia. The airline's reservation system crashed at 8am on Monday in Australia. The cause was a hardware failure in the computer set-up running the New Skies Navitaire software, which was hosted by Navitaire, an …

    Storage 28 Sep 2010, 19:07

  • Google Voice embraced by Apple?

    Hades chilly, porkers airborne

    We may be about to witness the final chapter of that interminable Russian novel War and Peace and Apple and AT&T and Google Voice. Reports have surfaced that Mountain View's native iPhone app for its telephony service might finally be accepted into the sacred confines of the iTunes App Store. "We've gotten word that the …

    Mobile 28 Sep 2010, 21:47

  • Researchers up evilness ante with GPU-assisted malware

    Coming to a PC near you

    Computer scientists have developed proof-of-concept malware that evades traditional security defenses by running on a PC's graphics processor. The prototype taps a PC's GPU to decrypt, or “unpack,” a malicious payload from a file just prior to being run on a targeted machine. Self-unpacking techniques are a common way to defeat …

    Malware 28 Sep 2010, 22:02

  • Schmidt answers Google antitrust claims

    Defends Universal Search

    Google boss Eric Schmidt has said that antitrust investigations targeting the company in the EU and Texas are "stimulated" by interested competitors and that — contrary to one of the complaints filed in the EU — the company's "Universal Search" setup does not unfairly drive traffic to Google services at the expense of rivals …

    Music and Media 28 Sep 2010, 22:16

  • Apple's Cook not jumping to HP

    COO says he's in love

    Tuesday morning, a rumor popped up that Apple COO Tim Cook was to become HP's CEO. Apple's stock took a beating. And Tuesday afternoon, the rumor was denied. "Tim Cook will not be going to HP, he loves Apple," a well-placed source told Barron's Tiernan Ray after talking with Cook over coffee a few miles north of One Infinite …

    Financial News 28 Sep 2010, 23:21

  • Schmidt: Google is the 'inverse' of Apple

    'Jobsian closedness is what we're not'

    Eric Schmidt likes to say that Google is a fundamentally "open" company, and according to the man himself, this means that Google is the anti-Apple. "With the Apple model — which works extremely well, as I know as a former Apple board member — you have to use their development tools, their platform, their software, their …

    Music and Media 28 Sep 2010, 23:56