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4th November 2010 Archive

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  • QLogic loses sales and marketing SVP

    Resigns to be CEO of cloud service provider

    QLogic's world-wide SVP for sales and marketing, Scot Genereux, has resigned to become the CEO of a cloud service provider. QLogic itself gained a new CEO in October when Simon Biddiscombe was promoted to CEO from chief financial officer, with long-term incumbent CEO HK Desai moving upstairs to become executive chairman. …

    Server Management 4 Nov 00:05

  • PayPal rushes out patched iPhone app

    Old one didn't detect spoof sites

    PayPal has submitted an updated iPhone application after learning that the previous one failed to check the digital certificates that confirmed the authenticity of the online-payment website. The hole leaves iPhone users who rely on the app open to man-in-the-middle attacks when connecting over unsecured networks such as Wi-Fi …

    Security 4 Nov 04:00

  • Oracle beefs chips and I/O on x64 blades

    Whither Opteron?

    Oracle is playing hide-and-seek with its x64-based Sun Fire servers again, but El Reg has found two new ones and some new blade gadgetry lurking out there on the Oracle site. The Sun Blade X6270 M2 and X6275 M2 blade servers are two-socket machines and are updates of existing Sun blade servers that have been certified to run …

    Servers 4 Nov 05:00

  • HP parries Ellison's 'industrial espionage' subpoena

    Hides new CEO

    HP has refused to accept Oracle's subpoena for brand-new CEO Leo Apotheker, denying Larry Ellison's effort to put the Apotheker on the stand in this week's court battle between Oracle and archrival SAP. "Hewlett Packard has refused to accept service of a subpoena requiring Mr. Apotheker to testify about his role in SAP’s …

    Business 4 Nov 06:00

  • Software engineer blogs own Starbucks wiretap

    Firesheep theatre

    Firesheep – the Firefox extension that lets you nab people's cookies over insecure networks and hijack their web accounts – doesn't do anything that hasn't been done for years. But it makes for good theatre. Last week, in an effort to "spread the word" about the dangers of sidejacking, New York-based software engineer Gary …

    ID 4 Nov 06:51

  • Oracle 'friend' fails crucial Java leadership test

    Rally returns Apache to power

    Oracle has suffered an embarrassing set of results in a vote over who leads Java. Developers voting in the Java Community Process (JCP) for new members of the committee overseeing Java on desktops and servers have overwhelmingly rejected a company nominated for a seat by Oracle through the JCP's Project Management Office (PMO …

    Software 4 Nov 07:00

  • Pure Oasis Flow weatherproof DAB and Internet radio

    Review Waterproof streams, anyone?

    Pure’s range of digital radios has typically included portable DAB models and several Wi-Fi equipped versions for streaming audio from your computer and access to Internet stations. Many are designed with portability in mind if you’re inclined to splash out on the optional rechargeable battery packs. While the Oasis Flow might …

    reghardware 4 Nov 08:00

  • First data fines on the way, says ICO

    Half a million quid penalties prove ICO has teeth, says commissioner

    The information commissioner will announce the first organisations to be fined for failing to protect data later this month. Christopher Graham said that the fines of up to £500,000 "give the ICO the teeth that many people in the past said it lacked". The ICO gained the ability to issue such penalties on 6 April, along with …

    Government 4 Nov 08:00

  • Man arrested in Phones4U mansion raid

    Plod collar suspect in Liverpool

    Staffordshire police, with help from their colleagues on Merseyside, have arrested a man in connection with the aggravated robbery at Broughton Hall - home of former Phones4U boss John Caudwell. The incident on Monday night left Caudwell with a one-inch gash on his forehead from an iron bar wielded by one of the gang. His …

    Channel Register 4 Nov 08:56

  • Tesla scores $30m investment

    Panasonic gets slice of 'leccy car maker

    Panasonic Corporation is paying $30m for a two per cent stake in electric car maker Tesla. The deal deepens an existing relationship; Panasonic supplies the lithium-ion batteries upon which the Lotus-based car depends. But Tesla had also used batteries from other manufacturers and now Panasonic becomes preferred supplier. …

    Financial News 4 Nov 09:38

  • Orange bulks up SIM-only deals for people who text like a canary

    And talk for Britain

    Orange has tweaked its SIM only price plans with three "Canary" tariffs for people who "love to chat". And texting too from the look of it. The three new options are: 30 day £10 SIM only – 100 minutes and unlimited texts 12 month £10 SIM only – 300 minutes and unlimited texts 12 month £15 SIM only – 600 minutes and …

    reghardware 4 Nov 10:05

  • 'Mr Backup' tracks race for dedupe speed trial domination

    Many-headed HYDRAstor wins

    NEC's HYDRAstor crushes its competitors into the dust in the inline deduplication speed races, being more than three times faster than Symantec, which is in turn twice as fast as Data Domain. The numbers come from W Curtis Preston, aka "Mr Backup". He has used published figures from the vendors, and is careful to quote …

    Storage 4 Nov 10:12

  • Samsung: we'll sell a million-plus Android tablets this year

    Add it to the Tab

    Samsung expects to sell more than a million Galaxy Tabs this year, the Korean giant said today. The Tab, a 7in tablet running Android 2.2 and featuring Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS technology, went on sale im Europe and Asia at the start of this week. Samsung launched the Tab in Korea this morning. At the launch, JK Shin, who runs …

    reghardware 4 Nov 10:13

  • Western Digital lets iPad users peek at pix

    Free MyBook drive app good for Android too

    Western Digital has a free app for Android and iPhone smartphone users to look at photos stored on their home MyBook drive. The app works for iPad, iPhone, iPhone 4 and iPod touch devices as well as most Android phones by connecting over the internet to a shared folder on WD's MyBook Live, World Edition and ShareSpace external …

    Storage 4 Nov 10:15

  • LG tablet to be flavoured with 'Honeycomb' Android

    Asus skipping 'Gingerbread' too?

    LG's decision to delay its Android tablet in order to bypass Android 2.2 'Froyo' - said by the company to be unsuitable for tablets - may see it skip a further release and adopt 'Honeycomb' instead of 'Gingerbread'. So claims a company mole cited by Reuters. Google, of course, hasn't publicly announced Honeycomb. Gingerbread …

    reghardware 4 Nov 10:33

  • Data protection law 'should contain costs recovery for ICO'

    Also link to privacy protection, says firm

    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) should be able to charge companies for audits he conducts on their privacy processes, according to a data protection consultancy. Data protection law should also be linked explicitly to the privacy protections contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, said the company. …

    Government 4 Nov 10:34

  • Old PCs: When it's time to die

    Workshop End of life

    Often, PCs are like old soldiers: they never seem to die. In many cases the old workhorses keep on going, so long as they are not touched and nothing major explodes or dies. We know this from your comments and we see this in our research too. The upshot is that the lifespan of mainstream PCs, for users who are not too …

    Desktop Management 4 Nov 11:00

  • SkyFire flees iTunes store

    Angry Bird-buster just too darn successful

    Pre-processing mobile browser SkyFire has been pulled from the iTunes app store after only five hours of offering access to streamed video content, because it's just too popular to cope. SkyFire routes traffic through its own servers, modifying the content to suit the mobile device on which it's being run - on the iPhone that …

    Mobile 4 Nov 11:03

  • Pesky weather grounds Discovery

    Earliest launch tomorrow for shuttle's swansong

    Space shuttle Discovery will not now launch on its STS-133 mission to the International Space Station until tomorrow (Friday) at the earliest. The venerable vehicle's swansong has has been postponed due to the weather at Kennedy Space Center, NASA explains. If the agency does green light a lift-off for tomorrow, it'll be at 19 …

    Space 4 Nov 11:04

  • Nuclear reaction: what's next in energy science?

    Interview What to expect now even tree-huggers love nukes

    This year, Imperial College graduated its first nuclear scientists for a very long time. After years in the doldrums, other universities are also increasing their activity. Is this a sign of a Nuclear Renaissance? Perhaps it is. Even deep Greens are dropping long-standing objections to nuclear power generation. I got in touch …

    Physics 4 Nov 11:05

  • Ofcom clears deck for re-farming

    Competition issues just evaporated

    Ofcom is now recommending that the UK government let Vodafone and O2 run 3G networks at 900MHz, arguing that the creation of Everything Everywhere removes any threat to competition. Last time the regulator looked at the question it concluded that as only Vodafone and O2 have 900MHz spectrum it would be unfair to let them use …

    Mobile 4 Nov 11:29

  • 'Pervy' private chat case springs back into life

    'Most significant obscenity case this century'

    The prospect of a dramatic extension of the Obscene Publications Act is once more back on the agenda, as the Crown Prosecution Service last week re-opened a case in which an individual is accused of obscene publishing in respect of a private online chat. The issue, described by one legal commenter as "the most significant …

    Law 4 Nov 11:38

  • Europe demands right to be forgotten

    Brussels lays ground rules for data protection

    The European Commission is setting out what it wants to see in the next generation of data protection principles for citizens across the community. The Commission, which is already taking the British government to court for its failure to properly protect our privacy, has outlined what it sees as the main issues which need …

    Government 4 Nov 11:57

  • US census takers fight angry Americans for their data

    They barely even vote. Why would they fill in a form?

    The results from the US 2010 Decennial Census are guaranteed by the end of the year. However, those who collected it - called enumerators - already know quite a bit about the state of the nation. There's no good news. The census, conducted once every 10 years, hired a few hundred thousand Americans to collect names, ages and …

    Government 4 Nov 12:15

  • MySpace quivers under News Corp axe

    Social network site to be offed?

    MySpace is continuing to limp along on the interwebs and the once hugely popular social network even gave itself a makeover last week. But News Corp, which owns the firm, could pull the plug on the entire operation within the year. As reported by another News Corp tentacle – All Things Digital – yesterday, Rupert Murdoch’s …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 12:17

  • World's dumbest file-sharer guilty for third time

    Everyone loses

    Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was found guilty by a jury of her peers and fined for file-sharing in 2007, has again been found guilty and fined for file-sharing. Despite the presence of celebrity legal academic and poker lobbyist Charlie Nesson, the re-re-run was unsuccessful. This was the third trial for the same offences; the fine …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 12:21

  • Apple coughs to time zone problems

    Now that the Americans are going to be hit

    Having upset the schedule of New Zealanders, Australians and Europeans, Apple has now admitted that iOS has a problem with summer time, three days before the Americans get inconvenienced. A new support document, picked up by Apple Insider, admits that iOS version 4.1 screws up repeating alarms during the switch from daylight …

    Mobile 4 Nov 12:27

  • HTC forgets Norwegian alphabet

    Where did the Ø go?

    The letter Ø is missing in HTC Desire HD touchscreen keyboards intended for the Norwegian market. Ø dear. This language faux pas* was uncovered today by Eurodroid, whose Norwegian correspondent Jostein tells the site: I recently purchased the HTC Desire HD and quickly discovered that the Norwegian letter “Ø” is non-existent …

    reghardware 4 Nov 12:30

  • Acer outs mega-format media box

    LAN and local content played on your TV

    Acer will release its HD-capable DLNA media streaming box later this month. Dubbed the Aspire RevoView, the gadget can grab content from DLNA servers on your home network - you'll need a wired connection to the LAN - and present it on your TV - for which it has HDMI, component and composite video ports. The RevoView also …

    reghardware 4 Nov 12:31

  • EPOXI set to give comet some stick

    NASA spacecraft gaining on Hartley 2

    NASA's EPOXI spacecraft is gaining fast on comet Hartley 2, ahead of a scheduled close approach tomorrow at around 14:00 GMT. At the appointed hour, EPOXI will pass within 700 kilometers (435 miles) of the comet's nucleus, while its two imagers and single infrared instrument capture intimate data. EPOXI is currently closing …

    Space 4 Nov 12:45

  • Toshiba ships Folio Android tablet

    Undercuts similar-size iPad by £100

    Toshiba isn't waiting for Honyecomb - it has begun selling its Android tablet, the Folio 100, with Froyo, it announced today. The 10.1in tablet has a 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, Nvidia Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip, 16GB of media storage, 2.4GHz 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, front-facing 1.3Mp webcam, a memory card reader, master …

    reghardware 4 Nov 12:47

  • Symbian rubbishes 'rebranding' reports

    Brussels launches embedded gravy boat

    Surreal reports suggesting that the Symbian brand is dead - to be "replaced" by Symbeose - are rubbish, says the Symbian Foundation. There's also much confusion about exactly what the new European-funded embedded consortium - called Symbeose - will do, and the Foundation's role in it. So what exactly is going on? Richard …

    Mobile 4 Nov 13:01

  • What's next for the mobile UI?

    Industry's wisest heads ponder. We take notes.

    How things have changed. Fifteen years ago attendees at a select mobile conference might have been found sparring over spectrum allocation and control channels. Back then, 3G loomed large, and huge geo-political battles were being fought. Today the talk is - how do you make it all work nicely? I thought that by eavesdropping …

    Mobile 4 Nov 13:17

  • Teradata rides data analytics wave in Q3

    Raising guidance for Q4

    Data warehousing and analytics is not a booming business, but it is doing a lot better than other sectors of the IT economy. Teradata is benefiting from the increasingly complex data types and sources that companies are chewing on to help drive new business and keep current customers happy. In the third quarter ended in …

    Servers 4 Nov 13:52

  • Public Cloud: Sorting out the peaks from the troughs

    Workshop Baby steps are what you take

    We know many of you remain sceptical of the whole ‘Cloud’ thing and are unsure of what it is, because World+dog seems to be using or abusing the term to peddle their version of a new-age IT vision. Much of the emphasis on cloud computing has switched recently to focus on the internal IT infrastructure – the so-called “Private …

    Server Management 4 Nov 14:01

  • Apple MacBook Pro 17in Core i7 BTO notebook

    Review The anti-glare alternative

    Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro line earlier this year with Intel's Core i CPUs. While the glossy screens and unibody construction are now a familiar sight, Apple does offer several build-to-order tweaks that aren’t likely to appear on the shop floor. Ram and SSDs upgrades aside, MacBook Pro 15in and 17in users can opt for an …

    reghardware 4 Nov 14:10

  • Brussels blocks UK from biometric superdatabase

    Intelligence defeat for spooks

    European judges have rejected an attempt by British security officials to gain access to a huge new store of visa application data being set up to combat illegal immigration, organised crime and terrorism. The government went to court to force the EU to allow agencies such as MI5, SOCA and the UK Border Agency to use the Visa …

    Government 4 Nov 14:11

  • Bare breast ballot finds scant support in small US town

    Pittsfield burghers stay covered up

    A ballot measure that would have allowed women to walk around bare-breasted has failed to find support among voters in a small town in Massachusetts. The non-binding measure put to voters in one district in Pittsfield proposed mandating the district's state legislator to press for a change to the state's definition of nudity …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 14:12

  • Nathan Barleys to fill Olympic chasm - Cameron

    Twitterati to save White Elephant?

    Prime Minister David Cameron has cast his gaze east across to Essex - and dreams of a landscape filled with social media marketing consultants and SEO boutiques as far as the eye can see. In the aftermath of the Olympics, Cameron wants to put the land and property on the Lea Valley to private sector use, and his Big Idea is to …

    Government 4 Nov 14:37

  • US Cyber Command becomes 'fully operational'

    Now witness the firepower

    The US military's new Cyber Command has formally "achieved full operational capability", according to the Department of Defense (DoD). “I am confident in the great service members and civilians we have here at US Cyber Command. Cyberspace is essential to our way of life and US Cyber Command synchronizes our efforts in the …

    Enterprise Security 4 Nov 15:00

  • Apple vs Nokia not as wrapped up as it appears

    ITC staff advice only applies to handful of patents

    Yesterday staff at the ITC said that Nokia wasn't infringing on some Apple's patents, but the war is far from over as the important ones had already been transferred out. The staff at the International Trade Commission were only expressing an opinion, a judge will still need to rule, but regardless of that the case only …

    Mobile 4 Nov 15:10

  • Europe attacks itself in cyber-warfare test

    As OECD admits major security fail

    Security experts are launching fake cyber-attacks against various European institutions today to check the response of European cyber defence. The simulated attack aims to cut or interfere with internet connections between European countries, forcing member states to cooperate in order to stop a complete network collapse. The …

    Government 4 Nov 15:21

  • Public sector tech jobs still plummeting

    Another bad quarter

    Public sector job adverts fell by 36 per cent in the last quarter, but overall demand for IT staff is still high. The most recent drop in public sector postings follows a fall of 21 per cent in the previous quarter. Contracting work in the public sector is also down - 29 per cent down compared to last quarter. Skills in …

    IT Director 4 Nov 15:24

  • Clive Sinclair unveils 'X-1' battery pedalo bubble-bike

    Impractical, underpowered: yet heavy and silly-looking

    Famous home-computing pioneer, unsuccessful electric kart promoter and balding sugar-daddy Clive Sinclair has announced his latest product: a sit-down electric-assisted bicycle fitted with an egg-shaped plastic enclosed body. Yes! It's the battery-assisted bubble chopper! The machine has been dubbed the X-1, and deliveries …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 15:49

  • Yahoo! invites world of boffins into 4,000-node Hadoop cluster

    Hello! Yahoo! is! a! tech! company!

    Yahoo! has opened up its Hadoop research cluster to computer science boffins at four additional US universities, including Stanford, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and Purdue. The company's M45 cluster — a Hadoop setup spanning 4,000 processors and 1.5-petabyte of disk space inside a data center at …

    HPC 4 Nov 16:00

  • Panasonic updates exchangeable-lens compact

    DMC-GF2 debuts

    A year and a bit after Panasonic released its first Micro Four Thirds ultra-compact, out comes its successor. Well, sort of - it doesn't go on sale until January 2011. Side-by-side comparison of the new Lumix DMC-GF2's specs with those of the GF1 show very little has changed: the new model does 1080i HD video capture and that' …

    reghardware 4 Nov 16:19

  • Macs get USB 3.0 thanks to LaCie

    Well, some Macs...

    A week after Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly emailed a Mac user to say that native USB 3.0 support for the platform was a long way off, storage specialist LaCie has rolled out Mac drivers for its USB 3.0 expansion cards. The drivers allow Mac OS X to talk to the SuperSpeed USB versions of LaCie's 2big, d2, Miniumus, Rugged and …

    reghardware 4 Nov 16:34

  • Ballmer, Bartz, Schmidt collide in London

    Comment Westminster at centre of digital universe for seconds

    What do you get when you invite Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, and Google chief Eric Schmidt to talk about tech opportunities in the UK? Jargon, rhetoric and a matey slap on the back from the Tories, is about the sum of it. It’s perhaps a coincidence that Ballmer and Bartz have both been in London on …

    Government 4 Nov 16:47

  • Apple preps patch for MacBook Air screen snafus

    My friend flicker

    Apple is said to be working on a fix for at least two of the graphical glitches affecting some of the new MacBook Airs. Reports of dodgy displays appeared this past weekend on Cult of Mac. Three readers said they had seen distorted images, "weird colors in vertical lines" and blank screens on their Airs, and one posted a video …

    reghardware 4 Nov 16:59

  • Deep space COMET FLYBY: First PICS

    Empty NASA space bomber in recce pass against 2nd target

    NASA's former Deep Impact comet-bomber space probe, since renamed EPOXI* and reassigned to rendezvous with a second space snowball, has made a successful close pass by the comet Hartley 2. Extraplanetary spaceball paparazzo-shot wondrousness. "The mission team and scientists have worked hard for this day," said Tim Larson, …

    Space 4 Nov 17:14

  • Netbooks: notebook evolved - or stunted throwback?

    Heads or Fails Demand for tablets suggests the latter

    Market watcher ChangeWave this week revealed that netbook popularity has plunged - but not necessarily in the wake of the iPad's introduction. ChangeWave regularly polls punters to see what gadgets they plan to purchase in the coming months. When it comes to netbooks, CW said, only 14 per cent of those North American consumers …

    reghardware 4 Nov 17:31

  • Android wins devs' hearts and minds

    Survey says: iPhone goes down in 2011

    Mobile-app developers are gearing up for an Android push next year, with the rise of Google's mobile operating system likely to push iPhone app-development activity into second place behind the Mountain View juggernaut. According to a survey released Thursday by mobile-ad firm Millennial Media, developed in conjuntion with the …

    Developer 4 Nov 17:39

  • Forumware giant vBulletin sues ex-devs (again)

    XenForo vows defeat of 'trade secrets' claim

    Internet forumware giant vBulletin has filed a second lawsuit against its former lead developer, who recently launched his own forum platform with the UK-based startup XenForo. With the new suit, vBulletin claims copyright infringement, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets. XenForo and its lead developer, …

    Software 4 Nov 17:47

  • Scroogle busted again after Google tweak

    Update Private Google scraper on fourth life

    Scroogle is once again offline after Google made yet another change to the auxiliary web interface the not-for-profit uses to serve up a privacy-friendly version of Mountain View's search engine. "Here we go again," Scroogle founder Daniel Brandt says in a post to the site. "We regret to announce that Google changed their …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 19:13

  • Ex-Sun boss gives Ellison open source wedgie

    Pg West 2010 'You're a great capitalist, Larry'

    Former Sun Microsystems chief and co-founder Scott McNealy has re-appeared to champion open source and rough up billionaire Larry Ellison, the man who bought his baby. Speaking at PostgreSQL West 2010, McNealy urged devs to drive adoption of their database against Oracle's proprietary products and MySQL by working with other …

    Software 4 Nov 20:24

  • Firefox 4 Android beta gets stomach stapled

    Now with 60% less beef

    Firefox 4 for Android has emerged from the fat farm, and it's 60 per cent less beefy. On Thursday, Mozilla released a second Firefox 4 mobile beta for Android and Maemo, and the size of the Android install has dropped from 43MB down to 17MB. "There is still room for improvement and we’ll continue to make the install size …

    Applications 4 Nov 21:23

  • Google's 'Instant' search engine goes mobile

    Gets busy on Android, Jesus Phone

    Google has brought its "Instant" search engine to mobile devices. On Thursday, the search giant rolled out a beta version of Google Instant for Android handsets, the Jesus Phone, and the iPod touch. Google Instant is the latest incarnation of the company's primary search engine. It serves up search-results pages as you type, …

    Applications 4 Nov 22:01

  • Apple's Mac App Store opens doors to devs

    Welcome to the dictatorship

    Apple's soon-to-be-opened Mac App Store began accepting submissions from developers on Thursday, 16 days after Steve Jobs unveiled it at his "Back to the Mac" event in mid-October. Although the OS star of that event was Mac OS X Lion, Jobs isn't holding up the Mac App Store until that cat pads into the market next summer. If …

    Applications 4 Nov 22:02