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5th October 2010 Archive

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  • UK head of online child protection resigns

    Demands 'arm's length relationship' - or he's off

    Jim Gamble, head of the UK’s Child Exploitation Online Protection Unit (CEOP), has resigned in a row over the supposed independence of his fiefdom. The announcement was made late Monday night, and it appears to be Gamble’s response to the outwardly technical issue of whether CEOP is to remain part of the new National Crime …

    Government 5 Oct 04:00

  • iPhone app tagged as terror tool

    Tory MP decries jihad juicing 'madness'

    A Tory alarmist is squawking about the technology behind an iPhone app that he claims could enable an airline-hunting terrorist to more easily stalk his prey. "Anything that makes it easier for our enemies to find targets is madness," Tory MP Patrick Mercer told the Daily Mail. "The Government must look at outlawing the …

    Security 5 Oct 05:00

  • EMC boosts NetWorker

    Faster, simpler backups promised

    EMC has integrated NetWorker backup with Data Domain Boost to speed up backups. This follows on from Data Domain's initial use of Boost to get better integrated with Symantec NetBackup or Backup Exec, by having backup data destined for the Data Domain box pre-processed by the Symantec media server. The company says the …

    Storage 5 Oct 06:25

  • Audio Chi W-series headphones

    Review Virtuoso performance on the cheap

    While not exactly a household name, Audio Chi has been making noises with its claims that its W-Series headphones can deliver quality audio yet remain in realms of affordability. Indeed, some things have to be seen heard to be believed. The W-series are lightweight, with a simple physical design. Accessories include a travel bag …

    reghardware 5 Oct 07:00

  • Hull man guilty of snooping on hundreds of medical records

    He broke the Computer Misuse Act out of 'curiousity'

    A Hull man has been given a suspended sentence for looking at hundreds of women's medical records. Dale Trever, 22, was working for Hull Primary Care Trust as a "care data quality facilitator" when he accessed medical records of 413 female patients. The court was told he accessed records 597 times. He started his snooping …

    Crime 5 Oct 08:20

  • Project Champion Report misses targets

    On CCTV, privacy, data protection...

    On 30 September, the Chief Constable of West Midlands went on TV to apologise for its plans to undertake comprehensive and overt CCTV surveillance of all cars and individuals who entered or left the Sparkhill area of Birmingham. This apology comes even though “No cameras associated with the Project have ever been used” and the …

    Policing 5 Oct 09:19

  • Foursquare falls down, lurches back up

    Where the hell was I last night?

    Foursquare is back up after a 15-hour outage, but the location tracking service will remain schtum on what went wrong until tomorrow. The service, which rewards those who check in regularly with mayoral status and pretty badges with which to make friends and influence people, went down yesterday and only returned in the early …

    Mobile 5 Oct 09:21

  • NASA's WISE loses its chill

    Frozen hydrogen spent, but heavenly surveyor lives on

    NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, aka WISE, has finally run out of the frozen hydrogen cryogen which kept its infrared detectors nicely chilled as it surveyed the heavens. Since launching in December last year on its mission to map the entire sky in search of "millions of hidden objects, including asteroids, 'failed …

    Space 5 Oct 09:41

  • HTC Windows Phone 7 handset turns Orange

    And Orange turns red...

    "Sorry, an error occurred" is how the page on the Orange website that leaked some info about HTC's upcoming Mozart handset is now headed. You got it right there, guys. The unannounced Windows Phone 7 handset popped up within Orange's support pages with a handy guide on replacing the phone's battery and inserting the Sim card …

    reghardware 5 Oct 09:50

  • Opting out of behavioural ads to get easier for US users

    US trade bodies to set a single point where users can opt out

    US web users will soon be able to opt out of behavioural advertising operated by members of the main advertising and marketing trade bodies. The groups have agreed to set up a single point at which users can opt out of the tracking behind the ads. Advertising trade bodies came together last year to create a body of self- …

    Music and Media 5 Oct 09:55

  • Tony Curtis goes to grave with iPhone

    Turn-by-turn directions to the afterlife

    Tony Curtis went to his grave packing an iPhone yesterday, his family have revealed. The veteran film star who famously said "I'm Spartacus" and likened snogging Marilyn Monroe to "kissing Hitler" was honoured at a public funeral service in Las Vegas yesterday. The 400-strong crowd at the funeral service thinned out to 200 …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 09:59

  • Drobo beefs up filer FS box

    Eight drives now

    Drobo has beefed up its five-slot Drobo FS network-attached stage (NAS) box by adding three more drive bays and a replication feature. The DroboPro FS, like the desktop storage DroboPro and the multi-host SAN (storage area network) Drobo Elite, has eight drive bays plus a Drobo Sync facility for replicating data to a second …

    Storage 5 Oct 10:04

  • Next Palm to drop physical keyboard, says mole

    Touchscreen only to take on iPhone, Android

    Here's one for you three Palm fans: the latest entirely unsubstantiated but issued by a "very reliable" source rumour has the HP subsidiary releasing a touchscreen-only smartphone, possibly as early as this very month. The rumour-monger, cited by PreCentral, says that the device, codenamed 'Mansion' - will sport a 480 x 800 …

    reghardware 5 Oct 10:10

  • Legendary steampunk computer 'should be built' - programmer

    Ada Lovelace's code to run on Analytical Engine at last?

    A well-known British programmer, blogger and online campaigner has called for a collaborative effort to finally make a legendary steampunk mechanical computer - the Babbage Analytical "Engine", designed but never actually built - a reality. John Graham-Cumming will be well known to many Reg readers as the programmer behind …

    Science 5 Oct 10:42

  • Three-version Avatar disc sets out 15 November

    Avatards rejoice!

    If you've not had your fill of Avatar you'll be able to buy a whole three discs more of it next month. Having dedicated the original DVD and Blu-ray releases to the movie - no extras to use up disc space that could be better employed upping the video bitrate - director James Cameron and co. have gone to town on the new set. …

    reghardware 5 Oct 10:50

  • Ballmer goes to LSE as internal doc calls for radical overhaul of MS

    'Volleyball, baby. Boom'

    Microsoft is privately telling its staff that the company’s way of doing business needs to be re-addressed – the only trouble being that public knowledge of that fact has been evident for some time now. The software vendor’s CEO Steve Ballmer was in London this morning speaking at the London School of Economics to a student …

    Channel Register 5 Oct 10:57

  • Iran nuclear plant shutdown due to 'leak'

    Mystery delay unrelated to Stuxnet infection, claims minister

    Delays in bringing Iran's nuclear plant online at Bushehr are due to a "small leak" and nothing to do with the infamous Stuxnet worm, according to the country's energy minister. Bushehr was due to begin producing electricity in November, following the transfer of fuel to the core in September, but power production is being …

    Enterprise Security 5 Oct 11:03

  • Diary of an Overflow Addict

    Stob Upvote, accept

    Thursday Medals 0 Rep 0 Need to write code to hash some passwords. Hmm. Troubled by the suspicion that this has been done before. Wonder if there are any functions in the Windows API to do this that a) aren't insanely complicated to call, or b) are .NET-only, or c) are reserved exclusively for Raymond Chen's use. Googled …

    Verity Stob 5 Oct 11:11

  • Qualcomm halts the FLO of TV

    Mobile TV again fails to ignite world

    Qualcomm is reportedly pulling the plug on its US MediaFLO service, after discovering that even Americans won't pay to watch broadcast TV on mobile phones. The service will go offline before the end of the year according to PaidContent, and Qualcomm is in discussions with AT&T and Verizon - who run branded versions of the …

    Mobile 5 Oct 11:44

  • Apple wants halt to $600m patent case

    Unabomber victim wants his money

    Apple is challenging a $625.5m court judgment awarded to Mirror Worlds for patent infringement. The computer giant wants an emergency stay on the verdict found against it last Friday. The court found Apple guilty of patent infringement and awarded damages of $208.5m for each offence. It said there were outstanding issues …

    Mobile 5 Oct 11:45

  • Hiberno-mooner stalks Google Street View

    Has pale rider ender gone beyond the pale?

    Google is struggling to keep up with the Hibernian moons plaguing its Street View Ireland service. Last Friday we reported how the Irish Times had uncovered a brace of of buttock jiggling jackeens in Dublin, prompting Google to quickly apply its vanishing cream to the offending buttocks. No sooner had they managed that than …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 11:47

  • Sir Norman Wisdom dies at 95

    RIP comic and Albanian national hero

    Sir Norman Wisdom died yesterday at the age of 95, the BBC reports. A family statement said: "Sir Norman Wisdom has today passed away at Abbotswood Nursing Home on the Isle of Man. Over the last six months Norman has sustained a series of strokes causing a general decline in both his physical and mental health. "He had …

    Entertainment 5 Oct 11:49

  • Samsung Galaxy Apollo Android smartphone

    Review Handy social behaviour?

    Samsung’s mobile phone portfolio grows ever larger, and while the differences can be hard to distinguish, the Galaxy Apollo does have its niche, at least as far as the marketeers are concerned. It is aimed at the connected lifestyles of younger people who want social networking tools at their fingertips. Originally an Orange …

    reghardware 5 Oct 12:00

  • Internet firms welcome CEOP chief's exit

    Exclusive 'Aggressive' approach unlamented

    Jim Gamble's resignation as Britain's most senior child protection policeman has today been welcomed by a broad coalition of internet firms, who said they had been alienated by his aggressive approach. Major ISPs and websites joined to criticise the former Northern Ireland intelligence chief's strategy at the head of the Child …

    Government 5 Oct 12:00

  • Driver follows satnav to his doom

    Drowns in reservoir

    A Senegalese man drove by mistake into a Spanish reservoir on Saturday evening - and drowned. His passenger survived. Local authorities say the 37 year-old followed directions from his GPS on to an old unlit road that submerged into La Serena reservoir in Western Spain. By the time he realised his satnav error it was too late …

    reghardware 5 Oct 12:05

  • Hitachi launches little whoppers

    HIghest SFF areal density

    Hitachi GST has launched the highest capacity small format drives in the business, at 375GB/platter, giving it a marginal advantage over 2.5-inch drives from competitors Seagate, Toshiba and WD. They'e bound to catch up. The Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 hard drive families spin at 5400rpm and 7,200rpm respectively, and have a …

    Storage 5 Oct 12:23

  • WD upgrades external HDDs to USB 3.0

    Superspeed ahoy!

    Western Digital has added USB 3.0 connectivity to its My Book Essential, My Passport Essential and My Passport Essential SE external hard drive lines. The My Book Essential also gets a capacity bump from the current 2TB range-topper to 3TB. The Passport Essential runs to 500GB. The SE version is physically bigger, to …

    reghardware 5 Oct 12:29

  • £1bn+ Royal Navy destroyer finally fires 'disgraceful' weapon

    MoD, Euro armsbiz in cost/time/goodness cockup hat-trick

    The Royal Navy's new £1bn+ Type 45 destroyers, which have been in service for several years (the first is already on her second captain), have finally achieved a successful firing of their primary armament. It worked this time, honest. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced yesterday that HMS Dauntless, second of the class …

    Science 5 Oct 12:43

  • Android is turning a profit for Google

    Google says so, so it must be true

    Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, reckons that Android is making money for the search giant, and claims it has already covered the cost of its development in increased advertising revenue. The detail comes in a fawning article about the open-source OS from Newsweek, covering how Android was developed by one man with a vision (Andy …

    Mobile 5 Oct 13:17

  • Cisco sets Warrior on unit left empty by new Skype CEO

    CTO juggles enterprise, commercial, small biz hats

    Cisco’s CTO Padmasree Warrior had her brief widened yesterday at the IT network firm, after she took on the job left vacant by Skype’s shiny new CEO, Tony Bates. Warrior, who joined Cisco in 2007, is now also responsible for the company’s enterprise, commercial and small biz unit. “This is the heart of Cisco’s business and we …

    Data Networking 5 Oct 13:18

  • Spuds for laptop fraudsters strike in Huntingdon

    Fresh sighting of autumn crop con

    The potatoes for laptop bait-and-switch fraudsters have been at it again, relieving a couple in Huntingdon of £650 in exchange for a bag of spuds and a few bits of cardboard. BBC Cambridgeshire reports that the unfortunate couple were approached in Huntington High Street last week by a man supposedly punting a second-hand …

    Crime 5 Oct 13:22

  • WD rolls out 3TB today

    Seagate has some catching up to do

    Yesterday, we suggested Western Digital could introduce its 3TB drive in a week or two. But it's gone and announced it today. There are three USB 3.0 products: the My Passport Essential portable hard drive, the SE version of that product, and the My Book Essential external hard drive. The My Book Essential has 1, 1.5 and 2TB …

    Storage 5 Oct 13:38

  • Verity Stob faces execution, Wikipedia-style

    Citation needed

    A 22-year career chronicling the world of computing programming counts for nothing, it seems. Columnist and author Verity Stob may be nominated for deletion from Wikipedia for not being "notable" enough. No date has been set for her termination, but an ominous note posted earlier this year warned that "if notability cannot be …

    Verity Stob 5 Oct 14:17

  • iPhone makes many Aussies late/early for work

    No daylight saving down under, mate

    Australian iPhone users have been having some early starts recently as their handsets have failed to adjust repeated alarms to allow for daylight saving - if they've gone off at all. We're indebted to the Sydney Morning Herald, and reader Adrian Esdaile, for alerting us to this latest iOS bug, which isn't limited to the iPhone …

    Mobile 5 Oct 14:34

  • Nokia's Meego boss goes

    Needed: New Linux box

    Nokia's VP of Meego devices is quitting, the company confirmed today. Ari Jaaksi, who we interviewed a year ago, back when he was running Nokia's Maemo project, is to depart for personal reasons in the next two weeks. Meego is the joint venture that merges Nokia's version of Linux, Maemo with Intel's, Moblin. Nokia's first …

    Mobile 5 Oct 14:45

  • HP sprinkles GPU chips on new cookie sheet servers

    Building block for 2.4 petaflops Tsubame 2 super

    Hewlett-Packard jumps into the CPU-GPU fray today from Barcelona, Spain, where it is launching its second generation of cookie sheet servers, the SL6500 Scalable System. The cookie sheet servers are designed by HP for hyperscale customers who need more density than standard rack-based servers can deliver, but who are also …

    Servers 5 Oct 14:46

  • Symantec pushes mobile security onto Android and iOS

    Do Androids dream of remote wipe?

    Symantec is extending its support of smartphone platforms in a bid to make its security and management technology as ubiquitous in the mobile world as it is on the desktop. The security giant announced added support for Android and Apple iOS platforms to its mobile security and management portfolio during the opening of its …

    Enterprise Security 5 Oct 15:05

  • Cut-price Android tablets ahoy!

    Fashion retailers, surplus stockists get in on the act as kit floods in from China

    The Cheap... John Lewis pitches 80-quid colour e-book reader No mention of the T-word Asda prices up Elonex 7in Android tablet Yours for £97 Dixons touts tablets Android-tastic 7in and 10in slates incoming Reseller touts cheap-as-chips 7in Android tablet Yours for 85 quid £180 7in Android tablet launched Disgo fever …

    reghardware 5 Oct 15:43

  • Boston firefighters get oxygen masks for cats and dogs

    No furry chum need fear the smoke-choke

    Firefighters in Boston say they are equipping every fire engine in the city with special oxygen masks intended for use by cats and dogs. "Smoke doesn't discriminate," Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald told Reuters, commenting on the furry-chum smoke-choke prevention equipment rollout. Rather than being intended for …

    Bootnotes 5 Oct 15:57

  • Apple's iPad is the hotcake of the 21st century

    Set to become fastest-selling non-phone tech device ever

    The iPad is set to become the fastest ever selling electronic device, according to estimates by US investment analysts. Retail analysts at Bernstein Research have apparently declared that iPad sales' rates - 4.5 million units per quarter - have surpassed that of the DVD, previously the fastest adopted non-phone technology, …

    Mobile 5 Oct 16:11

  • Touchscreen iMac rumor snuffed

    Taiwanese talker shocker

    Remember that report from late last week that Apple was sampling displays for an upcoming touchscreen iMac? Well, fuggedaboutit. For now, at least. Last Friday, the Taiwanese market-watchers at DigiTimes reported that the touch-panel and solar-panel manufacturer Sintek had supplied Apple with samples of their projected …

    Music and Media 5 Oct 17:42

  • Software dev turned rogue trader gets jail and €4.9bn fine

    Sacré bleu! Jerome Kerviel sentenced

    The French software developer turned rogue trader who brought French bank Société Générale (SocGen) to the verge of bankruptcy has been jailed for three years and fined €4.9bn ($6.7bn) Jerome Kerviel used purloined login codes from his co-workers and forged emails to create fictitious accounts. He gambled billions from the …

    Crime 5 Oct 17:50

  • Russian authorities detain suspected bank carding kingpin

    $660,000 gone in 6 months

    Russian authorities have detained a Ukrainian citizen accused of overseeing a criminal operation that used fraudulent credit cards and passports to siphon large amounts of cash out of banks around the world. The detention of the unnamed suspect came as Department K of the Russian Interior Ministry stopped the actions of the …

    Crime 5 Oct 17:58

  • Research links laptops to 'toasted skin syndrome'

    How to avoid the mottled moron look

    In the latest installment of "The Chronicles of Duh...", researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland, have discovered that letting a hot laptop rest on your thighs for hours at a time isn't good for you. Their research was published by the journal Pediatrics in an article enticingly entitled "Laptop Computer–Induced …

    PCs & Chips 5 Oct 19:30

  • Send in the (MySQL) clones

    Amazon takes relational to a higher plane, and cuts prices

    Amazon is making it easier, and cheaper, to roll out copies of MySQL for very large websites across its cloud. On Tuesday, the company announced an update to its Amazon Relational Database Service that will let users create and delete multiple Read Replicas of MySQL instances in minutes, via a point-and-click interface. MySQL …

    Software 5 Oct 21:45

  • vBulletin sues ex-devs over 'from scratch' competitor

    Updated Forum giant sparks forum mayhem (again)

    Internet forumware giant vBulletin has sued three former employees, a day before they were due to launch a competing forum-software platform via their new company, the UK-based XenForo. The move has sparked page after page of complaints on the, well, forums run by both vBulletin and XenForo, and though XenForo has delayed the …

    Software 5 Oct 21:50

  • Apple buys out $1bn data center squatters

    $1.7m in cash, catfish, bass, sofa

    Who says the US housing market is dead? One Northern Carolina couple just received $1.7m for their one-story home on less than a acre of land that they bought for $6,000. The buyer? Steve Jobs & Co. It seems that Donnie and Kathy Fulbright's home was on land that Apple needed for its $1bn data center, according to a report …

    Business 5 Oct 22:44

  • Cisco buffs Borderless Networks brand gear

    VMware virty server stuffed into routers

    Cisco's Borderless Networks launch on Tuesday put new switches, routers, and access point hardware into the field, as well as adding some interesting virtual x64 server software capabilities to existing routers, along with a smattering of other software and services. It's another one of those announcement days at the …

    Networks 5 Oct 23:37