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15th October 2010 Archive

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  • Opteron 6100 server ramp underway, says AMD

    Q4 pick up for 4100s?

    With a resurgent Intel grabbing mind share among the world's x64 server makers this year and very likely a few handfuls of market share, too, AMD's been in a tough spot. If the company's third quarter numbers are any indication of performance, though, AMD's getting some traction with its Opteron 6100s and is looking forward to …

    Hardware 15 Oct 2010, 05:00

  • Samsung HW-C450 2.1 soundbar

    Review Sonic boon?

    Once you've tried upgrading the raw sound that comes from your TV, there's simply no way back. Virtually any dedicated sound system will be better than the speakers on even the most highfalutin of tellies. If you’re looking for something less sprawling than a multispeaker surround set-up, the then Samsung’s HW-C450 is aimed at …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 07:00

  • Staffs cops place ANPR alley on M6

    Staffordshire police sprinkle high-tech cameras on 40 mile stretch

    One police force area in the west Midlands appears to make much greater use of motorway automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) than other constabularies. Police in Staffordshire appear to be using ANPR cameras in at least four locations on the 40-mile stretch of the M6 within the county. This compares to only three sets on …

    Law 15 Oct 2010, 07:00

  • Tranny co Arqiva reshuffles deck

    250 jobs to go in reorg

    Transmission company Arqiva is making 250 redundancies, around 10 per cent of its workforce, in a major company reorganisation, staff were told this week. Spawned from the transmission operations of the BBC and the IBA (Independent Broadcast Authority), the company traded as NTL Broadcast, but has been known as Arqiva since …

    Media 15 Oct 2010, 08:00

  • Amazon Kindle biz boosted by... Apple iPad

    Tablet users turn to retailer for more, cheaper books

    Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is doing rather well - and it's all down to Apple. US investment house Cowen and Co. has forecast that Kindle sales will rise 140 per cent during 2010, with shipments hitting 5m units. Amazon's e-book business will do even better: it will grow 195 per cent to $701m, Cowen forecast. It's e-book …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 08:10

  • French taxpayer to subsidise music buyers

    Is this a hand-up, or a handout?

    The European Commission has approved a French scheme to subsidise music downloads for 15-25 year olds. The taxpayer will contribute €25 per user per year to every "Carte Musique" cardholder, which entitles the user to €50 worth of downloads. The cardholder will stump up the other half of the cost of the card. The proposal had …

    Media 15 Oct 2010, 08:20

  • Great white sharks menace Blighty

    Jaws bored with lean Oz surfer steaks, wants a bit of cornish pasty

    In what certainly represents the death of the British seaside pedalo hire industry, the Sun reports that hungry great white sharks have moved from their traditional hunting grounds off the coast of Amity in search of European flesh. Those of you who are tempted to doubt that anyone venturing out into UK territorial waters will …

    Bootnotes 15 Oct 2010, 08:49

  • Spending Review? Why not axe the Information Commissioner?

    Let's merge four info bodies into one super-regulator

    I have come to the conclusion that there is a credible argument to scrap the Office of the Information Commissioner. No, I have not lost my marbles. Nor have I received a backhander from Google to fund our new Amberhawk website. This is a credible argument that can be made, especially at a time when deep public sector cuts are …

    Law 15 Oct 2010, 08:56

  • Seagate shenanigans hide cunning plans

    Privacy rules again, okay!

    Seagate has admitted it is discussing going private for the second time in a month. In a statement it said "it has received a preliminary indication of interest regarding a going private transaction." Seagate is talking with the unnamed party concerned and "has retained Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Perella Weinberg …

    Storage 15 Oct 2010, 09:24

  • O2 hits button on location-based ads

    Coffee'n'shampoo straight to your phone. Kinda

    O2 is to start pushing out SMS and MMS advertising, based on where you are and without requiring smartphones or apps - though the operator promises it will be an opt-in service. From today O2 customers who have signed up to O2 More will receive messages pushed from Starbucks and L'Oreal, regardless of their handset or contract …

    Mobile 15 Oct 2010, 09:30

  • Yahoo! hit! by! hour-long! downtime! blues!

    Purple portal lost will to live amid takeover gossip

    Yahoo.com went titsup for about an hour yesterday afternoon, but the company hasn't explained what went wrong yet. “For a brief period this afternoon, Yahoo.com was inaccessible to some users. We have identified the issue and are working to correct it immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 09:35

  • Climate change apocalypse NOW

    Analysis Ofcom says alarmism OK, long as it's 'practical'

    The long-running saga of drowning dogs and weeping rabbits finally drew to a close this week, with the pronouncement by Ofcom that last year’s "Act on CO2" advertising campaign was "not political". Critics fear that this ruling now gives the green light to government "information" campaigns that otherwise look, sound and feel …

    Government 15 Oct 2010, 09:59

  • PARIS radio chap slips into safe sex outfit

    Attempts to avoid sequin dress

    The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team are running around like headless chickens ahead of the planned 23 October launch, and while we've now got a main payload, some helium and a substantial cellar of fine Spanish wine to fuel the attempt, we're still plugging away on the Vulture 1 aircraft. Suffice it to say, the …

    SPB 15 Oct 2010, 10:00

  • Don't stone the DNS heretics

    Sysadmin blog They only said that Anycast was good enough for Jehovah

    I recently asked Rodney Joffe, chief technologist at Neustar, four-decade industry veteran and chair of the Conficker working group, about why he founded UltraDNS and implemented IP Anycast. Joffe, whose early career involved creating technologies for load balancing and fault tolerance, part of content distribution system …

    Servers 15 Oct 2010, 10:22

  • BT blasts hundreds of would-be customers' data into Infinity

    Race to Stupidity

    As one of Britain's largest and most venerable technology firms, you might expect BT to have grasped the basics of email by now. Alas, today brings news of another prang on the information superhighway for the Race to Infinity, BT's invitation to overlooked communities to plead with it to improve their local broadband …

    Broadband 15 Oct 2010, 10:31

  • Security firms shrug shoulders over GCHQ cyberattack warning

    Spy chief may have over-hyped threats

    Security firms reckon GCHQ's well-publicised warnings about the threat from cyber attacks earlier this week are timed to coincide with the run-up to the UK government's comprehensive spending review announcement. We spoke to several security consultants who believe the threat warnings were aimed at making sure GCHQ's line of …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 10:34

  • Vodafone moves 360 goalposts

    Operator locks customers into software by changing T&Cs

    After being forced to allow customers to remove 360 branding and applications by its own terms and conditions, Vodafone has responded by tearing up the offending rules. The old rules are still in place until 12 November, so until then Vodafone is still bound by the agreement that states users can "remove both the Service and …

    Mobile 15 Oct 2010, 10:44

  • BOFH: Pepper-packing bot plot

    Episode 13 Spray you, spray me

    Isn’t it always the way that the moment you get down to doing something important that requires a large part of your concentration, some idiot rolls up with an inane problem that just can’t wait? Like now, for instance, when the PFY and I are trying to quietly drill a small inspection hole in a recently delivered crate to …

    BOFH 15 Oct 2010, 11:00

  • Genuine white iPhone 4 spied in wild

    Helps to have a mate working for Apple

    Want a white iPhone 4? Then find yourself a buddy at Apple's Cupertino campus. That's how one - probably the only - lucky US punter got his. The unnamed gent was spotted waving his white one around at an event in New York last night. A flabberghasted Geek.com reporter asked him where the heck he got it, assuming no doubt - as …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 11:10

  • Firefox 4 beta 7 hits 'spectacular list of crashes' roadblock

    Release pushed back to end of October

    Mozilla’s bumper beta release schedule for Firefox 4 has slipped, which means the seventh test build iteration probably won’t land until the end of October. In all, the open source browser-maker now plans to push out eight betas of Firefox before it hits release candidate (RC) stage. But Mozilla is now a little behind …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 11:16

  • Spanish fascist decries Franco Eurovision slur

    FoTW 'F*ck you, stupid piece of red crap'- the flame in Spain...

    There was a time when if you had a pop at Spanish fascists they'd have you up against the wall quicker then you could say "¡Viva la Republica!" Times have changed, of course, and now it's entirely permissable to suggest that Franco rigged the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest so Cliff Richard's Congratulations had to bend over to …

    Bootnotes 15 Oct 2010, 11:30

  • Skype dials up deal with Facebook

    Plugs self into über Web2.0 wasteland

    Skype has inked a deal with Facebook by integrating the dominant social network’s News Feed and Phonebook into the Microsoft Windows version of its software. The company added it planned to roll out the tech to Apple Mac users soon, but didn't reveal when that would happen. “We’ve revitalised the look and feel, making voice …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 11:35

  • Dead baby taunting troll feels wrath of law

    Opinion Trolls, beware: the moderatrix has teeth

    Do not piss off the moderator – or a jail sentence could await you. In fact, do not generally piss people off on the net, or the same may apply, as unemployed Colm Coss of Ardwick, Manchester is likely very soon to be finding out. Mr Coss is a troll, with the particularly unpleasant habit of seeking out online tribute sites – …

    Law 15 Oct 2010, 11:41

  • Manchester to host UK's first Apple AirPlay demo

    Lots more at the Manchester Home Entertainment Show

    Hi-Fi maker Denon will tomorrow give the first UK demo of Apple's AirPlay technology - the revamped AirTunes that now incorporates video. The company will be showing off its upcoming AVR 3311 AV receiver which, when it ships early next year, will be able to stream content from a computer running iTunes, and be controlled by …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 12:08

  • Fight cyberwar with cold war doctrines, says former DHS chief

    '100 countries have cyber-attack capabilities'

    Cold war doctrines on how to respond to nuclear attack need to be applied to the 21st century threats of cyber attacks and espionage, according to former US Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff told delegates at the RSA Conference in London that around 100 countries had cyber-espionage and cyber-attack …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 12:27

  • Man wins $650k for stripper shoe eye snafu

    Lapdance face-poke horror provoked by phantom fondler

    A South Florida man is $650,000 richer after successfully suing a strip club, having been injured when a lap dancer poked him in the eye with a stiletto (heel). Michael Ireland was left with a punctured eye socket, broken facial bones and permanent double vision after the 2008 incident at the Cheetah club in West Palm Beach. …

    Bootnotes 15 Oct 2010, 12:37

  • Trial and error: online comments court attention

    Att Gen hints at review of responsibilty for online prejudicial comments

    The UK Attorney General has said that operators of websites should be responsible for comments made by visitors to their sites that prejudice trials. Dominic Grieve said that he wants "further discussions" on site owners' liability. Speaking to the Criminal Bar Association, Grieve, a Conservative MP, said that protecting the …

    Law 15 Oct 2010, 12:41

  • ZeuS baddies copy Conficker tactics

    Malware phone-home ploy gets recycled

    Variants of the infamous ZeuS cybercrime toolkit have begun using the tactics of the infamous Conficker worm in a bid to get ahead of security defences. The so-called Licat worm, which is "strongly linked" to ZeuS, represents a likely attempt to reinforce botnets following recent arrests of suspected bank fraud money mules, as …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 12:45

  • MoD braced for painful weight-loss surgery next week

    Analysis Buzz suggests it'll be liposuction, not amputation

    Next week the government will finally announce the results of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), the process by which the armed forces and their plans for the future will be brought into line with the amount of money available to pay for them. So, what's the state of play? The outlines of the situation are plain …

    Government 15 Oct 2010, 13:09

  • Fifa 11 vs Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

    Review It's all kicking off

    Loyalty in football is a strange thing. Through thick and thin, we stay behind our fave football teams. We remain very opinionated about which broadcaster is better. But we're all glory hunters when it comes to football games - we want the best. Loyalty only lasts so long. There's only ever been two footie games that bring such …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 13:13

  • BT dodges UK.gov axe

    Firm keen to reassure investors on bottom line

    BT's finances will not be affected by government efforts to renegotiate massive IT contracts, it told investors today. The Cabinet Office has been seeking savings from all major contractors. BT said its discussions with Minister Francis Maude agreed new efficiencies but will not damage its bottom line. Jeff Kelly, who as …

    Channel Register 15 Oct 2010, 13:19

  • Microsoft's fear of an OpenOffice

    Open...and Shut When 94 per cent ain't good enough

    Perhaps Microsoft's failure to meaningfully penetrate new markets like search has it scrambling to defend old turf like Office, but something is awry in the company's latest salvo against OpenOffice. Microsoft, with a gargantuan 94-per-cent share of the office productivity market, has seen fit to release a video beating up on …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 14:00

  • Samsung pushes Galaxy S users a fix of Froyo

    Android 2.2 update here

    Samsung Galaxy S owners will be getting Android 2.2 any day now, pushed out to Samsung's PC software. Says Samsung: "The Android 2.2 upgrade will be available from the [middle] of October 2010 in the Nordic region and gradually rolled out to other European markets, Southeast Asia, the Middle East Asia, North America, Africa …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 14:03

  • Police turn to extreme-sport mobe sucking

    Like getting water out of a phone

    Mobile forensics company CY4OR is offering police silica-lined bags, into which they can drop waterlogged phones in the hope of extracting the water, and therefore some useful data too. The bags have been knocking around for a year or so, under the Bheestie brand and sold to those who think they might drop their phone in the …

    Mobile 15 Oct 2010, 14:08

  • Samsung's 3-bit MLC NAND

    Short-lived 64Gbit first

    Samsung Electronics has announced the industry’s first mass-production of 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC), 64Gbit flash using 20nm-class technology. Enjoy the lead while it lasts Samsung; it won't be long. There are two other suppliers with 64Gbit NAND chips coming. IMTF announced a 3-bit MLC 64Gbit chip using a 25nm process in …

    Storage 15 Oct 2010, 14:14

  • Iomega preps external SSDs

    USB 3.0 on board

    Iomega will release its first USB 3.0 external solid-state drives next month. They'll be none too cheap, mind: £183 for a 64GB model rising to £624 for the 256GB version. Ouch. These are 1.8in drives, and if they seem pricier than comparable internal 2.5in SSDs, bear in mind these are the prices which retails will discount …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 15:15

  • Futuristic Judge Dredd smartguns issued to 101st Airborne

    Also: Target-seeking sniper bullets move to Phase II

    It's all go in the world of futuristic Judge Dredd style guns today. Reports suggest that a battalion of US airmobile* troops in Afghanistan are to be equipped with the XM-25 computing smart-rifle, able to strike enemies hiding round corners or in trenches. A successful "proof of concept" of a guided homing bullet for use in …

    Science 15 Oct 2010, 15:17

  • Ballmer woos students, ogles Google's search & ad model

    Steve ponders hits, misses and nothing inbetween

    Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer hung out with some more university students yesterday, as he continued his campaign to convince would-be technology and science graduates to work for the software giant. Speaking at the University of Washington, Ballmer explained that the company is still learning how to get things right with all …

    Software 15 Oct 2010, 15:28

  • Angry Birds addicts crash GetJar site

    12MB of pig-squashing action clogs servers

    Android users eager to play Rovio's free Angry Birds game have toppled the servers at GetJar. Interested parties got an email from Rovio saying that the beta was finally over, and that an advertising-supported version of the irate avian vs larcenous porcine game would be available shortly - initially at GetJar and soon on the …

    Mobile 15 Oct 2010, 15:47

  • Ingres and Xeround target MySQL waverers

    Take that, Larry

    MySQL competitors are lining up to try and tempt users out of Larry Ellison's tight embrace. Ingress Database 10, released this week, packs in changes the company said will make it "even easier" to migrate from SQL Server and Oracle's main database. Ingress is also floating Database 10 for users of Sybase - bought by …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 15:48

  • Google chucks $757m at data center empire

    60% surge in secret hardware cash

    Google's capital expenditures – the amount of money forked into its worldwide network of data centers – reached $757m in the third quarter, their highest level since early 2008, when the company was erecting at least three new data center facilities in the US. In fact, the first quarter of 2008 was the only quarter in the …

    Servers 15 Oct 2010, 15:56

  • Lexmark adds Twitter to printer

    Another productivity reduction opportunity

    It was recently joked that Twitter's downtime marked a boom in worker productivity - or would have if World+Dog hadn't been spending its time by posting 'why is Twitter down?' messages on Facebook. So popular are these social networks in the workplace that Lexmark has added the ability to use them through its networked …

    reghardware 15 Oct 2010, 15:58

  • Anonymous plants pirate flag on MPAA website

    Updated Eat my DNS, etc

    Hacktivists planted a pirate flag after defacing an MPAA website, according to security analysts. The attack on copyprotected.com – a Motion Picture Association of America that reports violations of the copy protection controls on DVDs and Blu-ray discs - is the latest in a string of assaults against the entertainment business …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 16:13

  • Pirate Bay appeal ends, verdict to follow late next month

    'Usual Friday. Possibly a little romance'

    The Pirate Bay appeal hearing ended today, but the court’s verdict won’t be revealed until 26 November. Officials at the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, Sweden, have confirmed that a separate hearing will take place for a defendant who has been absent during the re-trial. It said in a statement to The Register that …

    Media 15 Oct 2010, 16:15

  • Opera Mobile for Android: it's no Fatfox

    Chunky Mozilla browser shamed

    Update: Opera now says that the install size of Opera for Android will be about 20MB and that the download size is 6.5MB. This story has been updated accordingly. Opera Mobile won't show up on Android as fat as Firefox 4. Late last week, Mozilla released an obese Firefox 4 beta that required about 40MB of storage space – no …

    Applications 15 Oct 2010, 17:59

  • HDS kicks Hitachi-partner HP in the array

    No HP added value in P9500 claim

    A senior HDS blogger says HP has added no value to its OEM'd P9500 storage array and that its supposedly unique APEX storage service level software isn't unique at all: HDS does the same thing. HDS (Hitachi Data Systems) is a wholly-owned Hitachi subsidiary responsible for selling and supporting Hitachi storage and server …

    Storage 15 Oct 2010, 18:17

  • Espionage app updated for Windows phones

    Next destination: Android

    A software developer has updated an application that turns smartphones into sophisticated espionage tools that secretly zap contacts, calendar items, and geographic locations to servers of an attacker's choice. For now, Phone Creeper works only on handsets that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. But Chetstriker, …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 18:57

  • iPad to lead netbook and Kindle market munch

    Popping tablets in 2011

    Tablet sales will more than double in the next year, with general-purpose machines taking business from mini notebooks and single-function tablets such as Amazon's Kindle. The iPad will drive sales of media tablets in 2011, with 54.8 million units projected to ship worldwide according to Gartner compared to 19.5 million …

    Hardware 15 Oct 2010, 19:49

  • iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid: purveyors of pestilence

    Your smartphone wants you dead

    Your smartphone or touchscreen tablet is not your friend — not with flu season approaching. "If you're sharing the device, then you're sharing your influenza with someone else who touches it," warns Stanford University doctoral student Timothy Julian, discussing deadly digital disease-delivery devices with The Sacramento Bee …

    Mobile 15 Oct 2010, 22:04

  • Google rolls out phishing URL alerts for admins

    Available in XML

    Google has rolled out a service that alerts administrators when the sites on their networks contain links used in phishing attacks. The Phishing URL notifications are being added to the Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators, which Google rolled out in September. It sends email to admins of autonomous systems when …

    Security 15 Oct 2010, 22:50