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29th October 2010 Archive

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  • Google Nexus Two 'lands November 8'

    The name that refused to die

    The Nexus Two will arrive on November 8, according to a blog post citing multiple unnamed sources. This seems to mean that Google and Samsung will unveil a phone with software designed solely by Google, which may or may not get you excited. It's also rumored that this will be the first device to use Gingerbread, the latest …

    Mobile 29 Oct 2010, 00:03

  • Microsoft's Azure cloud plan favors Java

    PDC 2010 From killer to fluffer

    PDC is a Microsoft event, right? And .NET is a Microsoft architecture? Microsoft built C# and the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to kill Java, yeah? And they premiered C# and the CLR with .NET at the Professional Developers' Conference in 2000. So why is Microsoft at PDC ten years later talking about making Java a first-class …

    Servers 29 Oct 2010, 00:30

  • VMware's vSphere cleared for military spook servers

    ESX Server 4.0 reporting for duty, sir!

    VMware's vSphere 4.0 stack has received its EAL4+ certification for use with military and intelligence services. To pass muster with government military and intelligence services, virtual servers have to show they can eat nails and piss fire just like physical servers and their operating systems. That's one of the reasons why …

    Virtualization 29 Oct 2010, 05:00

  • Microsoft holds Androids hostage in open source wars

    Open...and Shut Redmond threat level: bright orange

    For years Microsoft has raged — and whined — against the open source machine, once going so far as to castigate open source as being "un-American". Something must be wrong with a development model, as Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Jim Gray once lamented, that evaporates the possibility of profit in software sales. And yet …

    Software 29 Oct 2010, 06:00

  • IBM bags £15m borders deal

    Semaphore stopgap

    The Home Office has awarded a support deal to extend the use of its Semaphore border system, following the cancellation of the e-Borders contract. The government awarded the support deal to IBM without a competition, as it said that as the current supplier it is the "only possible provider" capable of keeping Semaphore in …

    Channel Register 29 Oct 2010, 06:30

  • Yes! It's Halloween Hardware

    Product Round-up Ghoulishly hued kit to geek up the spooky season

    Two days from today falls Halloween - the last day of October and the time when ghouls and ghosts, witches and demons are said to haunt the land, chilly fingers reach out to you as you climb the wooden hill, and Apple fans go out dressed up as iPhones. To help you celebrate this most spooky of seasons, we've gathered together a …

    reghardware 29 Oct 2010, 07:00

  • Israel to join list of 'adequate' data protection nations

    EU personal company data can be transferred freely by end of year

    Israel will become just the seventh country to have its data protection laws approved by the European Union. The approval means that companies can transfer personal data to that country freely, without breaking EU law. Uruguay's application for the same treatment has been backed by a technical committee but still requires …

    Government 29 Oct 2010, 09:03

  • Undead Bredolab zombie network lashes out from the grave

    Someone's still pulling the strings

    The decapitation of command and control servers associated with the infamous Bredolab botnet, and the arrest of a suspect in Armenia, is a fantastic step forward for internet hygiene. But these steps have nevertheless failed to stop all malicious activity associated with the zombie network. An operation led by the Dutch police …

    Security 29 Oct 2010, 09:23

  • Multi-network iPhone SIM rumours at Apple

    Fondle-slab to become naughty slut who'll go with anyone?

    Rumours are circulating that Apple intends to produce a future iPhone with a special SIM card - probably integrated into the handset rather than swappable - which would permit a user to swap at will between cellular networks. The plans are reported on by GigaOm but not officially confirmed by Apple. According to the website, …

    Mobile 29 Oct 2010, 09:29

  • EFF calls for repeal of Data Retention Directive

    Retaining logs of network use is 'disproportionate and unpopular'

    Digital rights campaign group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called for the abolition of the European Union's Data Retention Directive, the law that demands that telecoms companies retain logs of subscribers' use of their networks. The EFF, based in San Francisco, wants the EU's data protection watchdogs to …

    Law 29 Oct 2010, 10:04

  • PARIS nursing mother of all hangovers

    Jubilant team celebrates space plane triumph

    The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space team is this morning nursing the mother of all hangovers following yesterday's triumphant conclusion to our audacious space plane mission. For those of you looking for a once-in-a-lifetime moment, try recovering a paper aircraft which has flown from 60,000 feet to a gentle touchdown in …

    SPB 29 Oct 2010, 10:08

  • Front End / Client Side Web Developer

    El Reg is hiring

    The position has now been filled and applications are now closed. Situation Publishing, owner of The Register and Reg Hardware, is looking for a full time developer to primarily work on HTML(5), CSS, JavaScript/jQuery and template engines such as XSLT and Perl’s Template Toolkit. You’ll work in our Edinburgh office and will be …

    Site News 29 Oct 2010, 10:27

  • Highest point on the Moon found: Higher than Mount Everest

    NASA probe-sat zeroes in on meteor lava eminence

    Space boffins say they have identified the highest point on the Moon, and that it stands higher above the lunar surface than the summit of Mount Everest does above Earth's. Top o' the moon, ma According to Mark Robinson, chief of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) camera team: The highest point on the Earth is at the …

    Science 29 Oct 2010, 10:36

  • The Student Cluster Competition: an insider's view

    SC10 Amping it up

    An insider's view of the Student Cluster Competition So what’s it like to compete in the SC10 Student Cluster Competition (SCC)? You’re a college student, one of six on a team representing your university. Your team is charged with designing, building and benchmarking a cluster that outperforms rivals built by seven other …

    SC 2011 29 Oct 2010, 10:44

  • BOFH: Join the club

    Episode 14 I like big bots and I cannot lie

    “You make it sound so... nasty,” the PFY says to the Boss as he fingers through several sheets of complaints. “What – trying to maim a supplier’s employees just because you don’t like their product!?” the Boss snaps. “THEY STARTED IT!” the PFY retorts. “How?” “They sent us their product!” “And in response you’ve been …

    BOFH 29 Oct 2010, 11:00

  • Adobe combats Apple with 'mobile first mindset'

    Comeback for Grandmaster Flash?

    Despite the hostility of Apple, Adobe is determined to be a major player in the mobile and multiscreen world. And it used its MAX developer event to show exactly how it plans to do so. At the MAX conference, Adobe made its usual promises of spanning multiple platforms painlessly, and extending this message to new norms such as …

    Developer 29 Oct 2010, 12:07

  • UK.gov plans net censor service

    [Subhead unavailable]

    The minister responsible for internet regulation is planning a new mediation service to encourage ISPs and websites to censor material in response to public complaints. Ed Vaizey said internet users could use the service to ask for material that is "inaccurate" or infringes their privacy to be removed. It would offer a low …

    Government 29 Oct 2010, 12:10

  • Sysadmin stole co-worker IDs for Amazon survey splurge

    Scammer to the slammer

    A California IT worker has been jailed for a year for stealing confidential data to make money by completing online health surveys. Cam Giang, 31, a former worker at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, used the names, birthdays and Social Security numbers of other hospital workers to complete online …

    Security 29 Oct 2010, 12:16

  • Mobile devices hit Trevor's spot

    Sysadmin blog A 10in form factor is just right

    I have spent the past month using Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) as often as possible in my role as a systems administrator. I have worked on my Blackberry 8350i, my HTC Desire and an iPad, using native apps as well as working within a remote environment, to perform tasks ranging from writing articles to managing servers. Using …

    Servers 29 Oct 2010, 12:23

  • Windows 7 fans hold hands out for Halloween service pack fun

    SP1 RC a trick or treat? How much time you got?

    Windows fans at a loss for what to do over the Halloween weekend can indulge themselves with the first release candidate of the Windows 7 service pack. Not that we're suggesting the RC is some kind of horror fest - although installation times appear to be a tad longer than some fans anticipated. Microsoft slipped out SP1 RC1 …

    Operating Systems 29 Oct 2010, 12:26

  • Emulex encrypts data before it gets into the array

    If you need to ask what kind, you aren't allowed to know

    Emulex is offloading encryption to its HBAs and working with Compellent, EMC, HDS and Big Blue to integrate them with storage arrays and key managers. There is some data, Emulex and IBM say, that is so sensitive and precious it has to be encrypted and made secure before it passes out of the server, goes across the wire and …

    Broadband 29 Oct 2010, 12:30

  • Saw II: Flesh & Blood

    Review Cut to the chase

    Halloween is round the corner and with the Saw 3D movie, the seventh instalment of the bloody franchise set for release, Konami has published its second video game tie-in Saw II: Flesh and Blood. Socket to me This game is grimace from go. The first task – to jab a scalpel in your character's eye and remove a key to his …

    reghardware 29 Oct 2010, 12:55

  • Daily Mail rails at Street View in women's refuge wrongness

    Campaign against benefit-scrounging single mums to follow

    The Daily Mail has launched an attack on Google Street View, following claims that the search giant's service reveals the location of a womens' refuge. However, a leading UK support organisation told El Reg that Google has gone out of its way to keep the locations of its safe houses off Street View. This suggests that the Mail …

    Law 29 Oct 2010, 13:31

  • SAP legal u-turn delivers new HP boss for Monday start

    Oracle calls for delay in trade secret hearing

    It looks like Leo Apotheker will be able to get through his first day as HP boss without getting hauled into court to testify in former employer SAP's trade secrets theft case with Oracle. Apotheker is expected to get his feet under the table at HP on Monday. However, the same day was scheduled to be the opener in Oracle's …

    Applications 29 Oct 2010, 13:35

  • Caringo administers dose of CAStor oil

    Constipated file systems need grunt and strain no more

    Caringo, founded by the Centera technology inventors, has reformulated its CAStor oil for the fifth time, adding named objects and more granular multi-tenancy. Caringo was founded by the people who devised the FilePool technology which EMC bought and turned into its Centera product line. CAStor is a content-addressed storage ( …

    Storage 29 Oct 2010, 13:51

  • Alien Earthlike worlds 'like grains of sand', say 'wobble' boffins

    Five year NASA skyscan reveals planet cornucopia

    In a boon for those anticipating future discovery of alien life and/or human colonisation of other worlds, NASA boffins say that their latest analysis indicates that almost one in four stars may be orbited by planets as small as Earth. "We studied planets of many masses - like counting boulders, rocks and pebbles in a canyon …

    Science 29 Oct 2010, 13:53

  • ViewSonic rolls out 3D HD camcorder

    Shoot on a budget

    3D HD camcorders can easily set you back four figures, but budget alternatives are available - the latest of which is the ViewSonic 3DV5. The device comes with a built-in 2.4in autostereoscopic display, where videos can be seen in 3D without the need for glasses. The 3DV5 captures 720p MP4 videos as well as still images and …

    reghardware 29 Oct 2010, 14:21

  • B+F: EMC bloggers clash with analyst

    Angry online battle of storage boffins ensues

    Storage analyst Josh Krischer is upset at the way leading EMC bloggers, in his words, "spread inaccuracies and FUD on their competition and … attack personally someone who is pointing to the inaccuracies (without correcting or answering)." The spat has arisen because of responses submitted to Chuck Hollis and Barry Burke (aka …

    Storage 29 Oct 2010, 14:49

  • Will the cloud mean joblessness for you?

    Cut the hype and keep it real

    You’ve heard the rhetoric: Cloud computing changes everything. The days of the enterprise data centre and the small business computer room are numbered. At some point in the not too distant future, you’ll be switching off the last server, turning out the lights, and looking for a career change. The sad thing is that some …

    Servers 29 Oct 2010, 15:29

  • Avere screeches straight through VDI storms

    Striping and replicating across front end accelerators with pedal to the metal

    Avere, which makes clustered filer accelerator nodes, is striping data across caches and even caching multiple copies to handle burst read requests. When servers deluge a filer with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) boot requests, the filers can struggle. A thousand or more boot requests can occur in a VDI storm and …

    Storage 29 Oct 2010, 15:50

  • Frenchman cuffed for naughty lip-slip email to MEP

    Gendarmes don't find fellatio funny

    A Frenchman faces jail for sending a risqué email to a high-profile female politician. Glamourous MEP Rachida Dati complained to the police after an unnamed 40-year-old wrote to her asking for an "inflation", the Telegraph reports. The request was a reference to a recent, widely-reported Freudian slip by Dati, who confused …

    Bootnotes 29 Oct 2010, 15:54

  • Mozilla brews Firefox add-on for audio-video recording

    Multimedia for the web built on the web

    Mozilla Labs is developing a Firefox add-on that lets web developers access a machine's local video and audio recording devices using a few lines of JavaScript. Known as Rainbow, this early prototype generates files in open formats, and these files can then be accessed via the HTML5 File APIs and moved onto a server. "There …

    Developer 29 Oct 2010, 17:31

  • US to fork $5bn+ into exascale supers

    Get with it, Europe

    With the supercomputing community in the Western economies freaking out just a little bit that China has come out of nowhere to take the lead in supercomputing, and the US supposedly getting ready to allocate $5bn in an effort to push up into the exacale realm, IDC could not find a better week to deliver its report to the …

    HPC 29 Oct 2010, 21:21

  • Microsoft nails Silverlight's future to Windows Phones

    PDC 2010 From three screens to one

    Microsoft is making it easier to write Silverlight apps for Windows Phones. In the first half of 2011, Microsoft will deliver the Portable Library Project, which lets Silverlight programmers deploy apps for as many different types of devices as possible. It was released as a preview on Thursday. The idea is to offer a single …

    Developer 29 Oct 2010, 23:26