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15th November 2010 Archive

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  • AMD laughs at Intel with Opteron Bulldozers

    Have fun with that socket upgrade, boys

    There is no such thing as the last laugh in the server chip business. But you can get the next laugh, and Advanced Micro Devices thinks it is going to get that sequential chuckle on rival Intel in the x64 server racket with next year's launch of the "Bulldozer" family of Opteron processors. The reason is simple. This year, AMD …

    Servers 15 Nov 2010, 04:00

  • IBM to ship GPU blade server in December

    SC10 Four blades gang for 2 teraflops bang

    If you want to sell supercomputers these days, you need to have a GPU story to tell. And Big Blue has been telling a story about a blade server for GPUs for the past several months, but unfortunately it doesn't actually have the product ready. However, in about a month this BladeCenter GPU expansion blade is coming to market, …

    HPC 15 Nov 2010, 05:10

  • Buffalo USB 3.0 ExpressCard 34

    Review SuperSpeed interfacing for your laptop

    With USB 3 storage now gathering momentum, fitting a SuperSpeed interface to your computer seems like an option worth investing in now. Even laptop users aren’t left out of this buss ride, if there’s an ExpressCard 34 slot available. Such cards are still quite a rarity, with Buffalo’s IFC-EC2U3UC dual-port adapter being among …

    Hardware 15 Nov 2010, 08:00

  • Google bosses get tasty raise

    10 per cent good enough for troops, not for officers

    Four senior, but not the most senior, Google bosses are getting 30 per cent pay rises and a hefty jump in their expected bonuses. Basic pay for the four goes up from $500,000 in 2010 to $650,000 in 2011. The four will also see their target bonus go up from 150 per cent of salary to 250 per cent. Half this bonus is based on …

    Developer 15 Nov 2010, 09:26

  • Gov report urges total consumer contract law overhaul

    Make three consumer sales laws into one simplified law

    A Government report has recommended a complete overhaul of consumer law which would bring together the disparate laws that currently govern the sale of goods and services to consumers. Pointing out that three laws currently govern consumer sales contracts, the report recommends creating a single law as well as ensuring that it …

    Small Biz 15 Nov 2010, 09:56

  • Apple antennagate scapegoat scooped up by Cisco

    Boardroom-hopping exec joins networking giant

    Mark Papermaster, whom Apple had such a hard time wresting from IBM in 2008, and who took much of the flak for the iPhone's dodgy antenna, has moved on to Cisco. When recruited by Apple in 2008, Papermaster wasn't allowed to work for the first six months while Cupertino fought his corner disputing the non-competitive clause of …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2010, 10:29

  • When IT projects go right

    Project management How not to stuff it up

    There is a vast difference between running a project and running one successfully, as a cursory scan of recent news shows. In the run up to the Commonwealth Games, dire predictions were rife that the event could not actually go ahead. The government initiative to generate a quarter of all the UK’s electricity over the next 10 …

    Project Management 15 Nov 2010, 10:42

  • BridgeSTOR dedupes primary storage for small biz

    Bridge to the cloud coming

    Startup BridgeSTOR is going to offer compressed and deduplicated primary storage so that small and medium businesses (SMBs) can hold a lot more data for a lot fewer dollars. The company is using hardware dedupe and compression along with flash caching and small form factor drives to deliver fast performance and application- …

    Storage 15 Nov 2010, 11:04

  • Dixons drops exclusive Toshiba Android tablet

    Update Yanked temporarily due to 'very high return rates'

    Dixons stores this weekend began charging a bonkers £999 for Toshiba's £329 Folio 100 Android tablet, apparently in an attempt to dissuade punters from buying the product. The reason? According to a snap of Dixons' internal EPoS system, Eclipse: "Due to very high return rates, we are temporarily stopping sales of [the Toshiba …

    Tablets 15 Nov 2010, 11:09

  • Amazon adds GPUs to EC2 HPC clouds

    SC10 Where's InfiniBand networking?

    VMware's ESX Server virtualization and Amazon's EC2 cloud got their starts among developers frustrated with the time and money it took to get physical infrastructure approved and set up so they could monkey around with their code. And it is a safe bet to guess that hybrid CPU-GPU clusters are going to get some serious action now …

    Cloud 15 Nov 2010, 11:18

  • Koobface takedown exposes money trail

    Face/off

    A Koobface server takedown operation which began over the weekend has already shed new light into the operations of the infamous botnet. UK ISP Coreix unplugged command and control servers linked to the worm on Friday as part of a wider takedown operation spearheaded by Canadian security firm SecDev. Nart Villeneuve, head of …

    Security 15 Nov 2010, 11:28

  • AOL preps mail beta

    World continues to turn

    AOL is offering lucky punters a beta version of its new email interface. Project Phoenix - a worrying name for any project - promises to be simple to use and includes a Quick Bar for accessing mails, text messages and IMs. The software also aggregates several email addresses, so you don't have to suffer the shame of an "@aol. …

    Applications 15 Nov 2010, 11:30

  • MS preps service pack blocker tool for Windows 7, Server 2008 R2

    SP1 action coming to a screen near you soon

    Microsoft has prepped its Windows Service Pack blocker tool kit to include its upcoming service packs for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The SP1s for both operating systems hit Release Candidate status late last month, but they’re not expected to reach manufacturers until early next year. Ahead of that, MS has updated …

    Management 15 Nov 2010, 11:34

  • Calls for US nudie perv scanner 'opt-out day'

    NSFW 'Go for the groin grope', Thanksgiving trippers urged

    An online protest campaign is urging air travellers in the USA to observe "national opt out day" on 24 November and insist on their right to be felt up by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operatives rather than submit to the new nudie perv scanner technology. It is feared that the protest could overburden the TSA's …

    Government 15 Nov 2010, 11:35

  • Three tempts mobile broadband buyers with free Times access

    Sidestep the Thunderer's paywall

    Three has allowed its new mobile broadband customers to bypass News International's paywall on the Times and Sunday Times websites. The arrangement will see contract and pay-as-you-go customers gain free access to the online version of the papers for a three-month period. After that time, folk on contracts can get them both …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2010, 11:53

  • Scareware cold-callers target 1 in 4

    Bogus software scam riles UK.gov

    A quarter of internet users have received a cold call from cyber criminals falsely claiming their computer is infected with a virus, the government said today. The con is designed to obtain banking credentials and control of the target machine. Victims are told they need to download software that will remove the infection, but …

    Security 15 Nov 2010, 12:16

  • Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010

    Reg Hardware Awards Have YOUR say

    2010 marks the launch of the Reg Hardware Awards - and we need YOUR help. We've looked a lot of kit this year, and we know what we think is the best of the bunch - there will be a handful of Editor Awards too, see below - but we want the majority our awards to reflect what you, the reader who buys and uses the gadgets, …

    Hardware 15 Nov 2010, 12:17

  • EMC buys Isilon for $2.25bn

    Update Early Christmas shopping

    Since this report was filed, EMC announced that it was buying Isilon for $2.25bn. The New York Post is reporting that EMC has agreed to buy Isilon after weekend talks moved the parties past a price-difference roadblock. It had been reported that Isilon's self valuation was too high for EMC, and CEO Joe Tucci said he would …

    Storage 15 Nov 2010, 12:33

  • Gmail creator and FriendFeed co-founder quits Facebook

    Buchheit has 'very little desire' to work on email

    Facebook may be about to launch what some have perhaps over-excitedly described as the headline-grabbing “Gmail killer”, but it will do so without the help of Google alumnus and FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit. Readers with short-term memory will likely recall that Mark Zuckerberg took on the mighty talent of Buchheit – …

    Applications 15 Nov 2010, 12:37

  • No hiding place - facial biometrics will ID you, RSN

    Opinion Falling costs and error rates threaten to eliminate privacy

    One of the technologies that has been on a steadily accelerating price/performance curve is face recognition technology. A series of talks this year demonstrated just how quickly the software is improving. Every year there’s an event in London called Biometrics. It’s a conference all about the state of biometric technology and …

    Government 15 Nov 2010, 12:40

  • From systems to service assurance

    Webcast The devil is in the detail

    On November 19 at 18:00UK, 10:00PST, 13:00pm ET, we've got a treat for all of you looking to shift your IT operations to more of a service delivery model. We'll be running a live event exploring the dos and don'ts, the pros and cons and the challenges and opportunities of just such a move. It should be just the ticket. For …

    Tech Panel 15 Nov 2010, 12:54

  • Toshiba Portégé R700 13in notebook

    Review One-time MacBook Air alternative gets chubby in middle age

    Toshiba first introduced its then ultra-lightweight Portégé R500 in 2008 just before Apple unwrapped the MacBook Air. Toshiba's Portégé R700: getting more chubby as the series ages The R500 didn't generate the same media frenzy that the skinny Mac laptop did, but in many ways it was the better machine. It had a smaller, 12. …

    Laptops 15 Nov 2010, 13:00

  • PS3 jailbreak seller hits back with firmware downgrade

    Step back in time to re-apply console crack

    PS Jailbreak, the USB dongle designed to crack open Sony's PlayStation 3, can now work with consoles that have been updated with firmware higher than version 3.41. Well, kind of. The software tweak actually enables the dongle to downgrade the console's firmware to 3.41 - or, indeed, any previous firmware version, the maker …

    Games 15 Nov 2010, 13:01

  • Brocade delivers 10gig FCoE switching

    VDX products

    Brocade is ready to deliver 10gig Ethernet switching with end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), opening the way for its customers to move away from costly physical Fibre Channel and embrace converged networking with Ethernet economics. This is the first product implementation of a technology outlined in the summer by …

    Data Networking 15 Nov 2010, 13:10

  • Democratic phone network turns dictatorial

    Giffgaff, the network run by... someone else

    A mobile network billed as being "run by you" is bowing to commercial pressure, adopting the more-dictatorial tone common to its competitors. Giffgaff is a virtual network owned by Telefonica. While it runs in Telefonica's infrastructure, it promises cheaper costs though peer-support (instead of call centres), and tariffs …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2010, 13:15

  • Making practice perfect in IT service delivery

    Workshop The north, south, east and west of service delivery

    The adage “Do as I say, not as I do” is nowhere more true than in delivering effective IT services. Bookshelves are full of guidance, and indeed, frameworks such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) go into considerable depth to explain the whys and wherefores of service delivery best practice. If it’s all so hard to do …

    Service Assurance 15 Nov 2010, 13:45

  • Man cracks open floppy disk, inserts USB Flash drive

    The return of the 3.5in diskette

    The pictures say it all, really. Hardware hacker Charles Mangin this weekend posted the results of his attempt to slot the innards from a USB Flash drive into an old 3.5in floppy disk case - well, two of them, to be precise, the original casing not being quite thick enough for the cable and connector. Pictures: Charles Mangin …

    Hardware 15 Nov 2010, 13:50

  • Auction for failed games developer hit by DDoS attack

    Everything must go...

    Realtime Worlds' liquidation auction was blitzed off the web on Friday, following an attack on the website of auctioneers Sweeney Kincaid. The online auction of kit from the failed games developer was first postponed by four hours, but after more denial of service attacks, it was eventually moved offline. The auctioneers, …

    Security 15 Nov 2010, 13:53

  • How to make boots on Mars affordable - One way trips

    Space Cowboys oldster-pioneers to live in cave habitats

    One of the main limiting factors on a manned mission to Mars is the fact that, under normal assumptions, much of the stuff that travelled to the red planet would not be concerned with exploration but rather with bringing the crew back to Earth. The solution? According to two scientists, it would make more sense for the first …

    Science 15 Nov 2010, 14:04

  • SGI gets its HPC mojo back with CPU-GPU hybrids

    SC10 Sticking it to racks and blades

    If Silicon Graphics was still a standalone company and had not been eaten by hyperscale server maker Rackable Systems, there is a fairly good chance that the innovative "Project Mojo" hybrid CPU-GPU clusters, which pack a petaflops into a single cabinet, would not have seen the light of day. And because two innovative server …

    HPC 15 Nov 2010, 14:21

  • Missing piece completes Stuxnet jigsaw

    Malware targets frequency converter drives from two specific vendors

    Security researchers have found an important missing piece in the Stuxnet jigsaw that provides evidence that the malware was targeted at the types of control systems more commonly found in nuclear plants and other specialised operations than in mainstream factory controls. It was already known that the highly sophisticated …

    Security 15 Nov 2010, 15:19

  • Brocade: Vertically integrated IT stacks are dying

    Comment It always fails

    "Vertically integrating the stack always fails," asserts Dave Stevens, Brocade's chief technology officer. He disagrees with the bosses of Cisco, EMC, HP, Oracle and VMware, though NetApp will love him. The Brocade pitch is that you need best of breed products at each stack layer: system software; hypervisor, server, storage …

    Storage 15 Nov 2010, 15:54

  • Nokia C7 will go NFC next year

    But we still don't know why...

    Nokia's C7 handset can read NFC (Near Field Communication) tags, and operate as an NFC tag itself, with a downloaded update coming next year. This will be followed by software to drive the secure element. The secure element will be needed to manage proximity payment systems, such as London's Oyster network, but Nokia still isn …

    Phones 15 Nov 2010, 15:55

  • Apple adds Ping kill switch to iTunes

    But has Jobs done a deal with Macca?

    Apple pushed out an update for its iTunes music service on Friday that, among other things, allows customers to switch off its unloved Ping social network. Ping rocked up in September and was immediately greeted with indifference by fanbois and gals, some of whom complained that it had been bolted onto iTunes without Apple …

    Media 15 Nov 2010, 16:15

  • Don't wait to obey European data laws

    Stronger laws are coming, but you still have to follow current ones

    The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has welcomed the European Commission's move to strengthen privacy and data protection. The reform process is in its early stages, but the EDPS said the timing was good because Europe needed strong and effective protection to match changing technology. Peter Hustinx, the EDPS, …

    Government 15 Nov 2010, 16:25

  • Tumblr and 4chan knock each other out

    Fight! DoS attacks, hacks and erm... kittens fly wildly

    Blogging site Tumblr was knocked offline on Monday by the denizens of 4Chan, which was briefly floored itself during a tit-for-tat dispute that has recently escalated into open hacking attacks by both sides. Users of 4chan came together to launch a denial of service attack against Tumblr in response to gripes that the site was …

    Security 15 Nov 2010, 16:28

  • Wikileaks urges Time death-list spot for Assange

    Questionable anti-assassination tactic

    Wikileaks is calling for supporters to vote for its founder Julian Assange as Time magazine's "Person of the Year™". In terms of news coverage generated in the last 12 months, he's certainly a contender. The Afghanistan and Iraq documents got global exposure, as did the fate of their alleged leaker, Private Bradley Manning. …

    Bootnotes 15 Nov 2010, 17:05

  • Google accused of hard-coding own links in search

    Updated Harvard prof waves Google antitrust 'smoking gun'

    Update: This story has been updated with comment from Google. In a still-simmering Google antitrust complaint, UK-based vertical search outfit Foundem accuses the Mountain View web giant of using its search monopoly to unfairly favor its own services over those of its competitors. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt denies the …

    Media 15 Nov 2010, 17:56

  • Facebook unveils 'next-gen' messaging system

    'It's not email. It's everything'

    Facebook has unveiled a "next-generation" messaging system for its social networking–obsessed users. After speaking with some high schoolers during a Thanksgiving trip a couple of years ago — who told him that they rarely used email because it was "too slow" — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided his social networking cum …

    Applications 15 Nov 2010, 18:21

  • Apple yanks Snow Leopard Server 10.6.5 update

    Updated Trouble trove prompts disappearing act

    Apple has pulled a Soviet-style disappearing act on its recently released Mac OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard Server upgrade — the upgrade has become an un-upgrade, pulled from Jobs & Co.'s download service. Since the upgrade was released just last Wednesday, Apple's discussion boards have been crying out about the update causing …

    Operating Systems 15 Nov 2010, 18:28

  • AMD joins Intel mobile Linux push

    Fusion play

    AMD has joined chip-rival Intel's MeeGo initiative, which aims to build a Linux platform for mobile devices. The company said on Monday that it's providing MeeGo with engineering expertise to help establish "the technical foundations for the next-generation mobile platforms and embedded devices." Ben Bar-Haim, vice president …

    Developer 15 Nov 2010, 18:44

  • 'Super-secret' debugger discovered in AMD CPUs

    Password-protected feature goes beyond x86

    A hardware hacker has discovered a secret debugging feature hidden in all AMD chips made in the past decade. The password-protected debugger came as a shock to reverse-engineers who have hungered for an on-chip mechanism for performing conditional and direct-hardware breakpoint operations. Although AMD has built the firmware- …

    Hardware 15 Nov 2010, 19:10

  • Cray kicks out midrange XE6m super

    SC10 Gonna wake up in a Gemini dream

    At the SC10 supercomputing extravaganza in New Orleans on Monday, Cray rolled out its next iteration of midrange boxes, the XE6m. Not everyone needs a petaflops supercomputer — or more precisely, not everyone can afford one. And so, like prior midrange machines, the Opteron-based server nodes in Cray's blades are designed to …

    HPC 15 Nov 2010, 20:04

  • Facebook 'next-gen' comms (sorta) answer Google beef

    @facebook.com email handles exportable

    Facebook's "next–generation" messaging system won't end Google's beef with the social site's data-export policies. But it does make a small step in that direction. Facebook director of engineering Andrew Bosworth has indicated that with the roll-out of the new messaging system, users will be able to export the email addresses …

    Applications 15 Nov 2010, 20:42

  • SAP chief apologies to Oracle for TomorrowNow theft

    Top-brass sent to bed without supper

    Oracle still hasn't succeeded in dragging SAP's ex-chief executive into court to testify on what hw knew about the subsidiary TomorrowNow's "industrial espionage." On Monday, what Oracle got instead was an apology from the former CEO's replacement: co-CEO Bill McDermott. It was another tech-sector captain deflated in the …

    Applications 15 Nov 2010, 20:54

  • Facebook's new comms: 'our largest ever engineering project'

    15 whole engineers tackle Hbase!

    The creation of Facebook's new messaging system was the company's largest-ever engineering project, according to director of engineering Andrew Bosworth. The project spanned more than a year, according to company founder Mark Zuckerberg, and it included the roll-out of a new distributed database platform. The system uses HBase …

    Software 15 Nov 2010, 22:22

  • Eric Schmidt whips out mystery Android

    'Ah, but I said no...Nexus Two'

    Google CEO Eric Schmidt has demonstrated a mystery Android phone that uses a near field communication (NFC) chip that could effectively turn the handset into a credit card, offering the ability to "tap and pay." Chatting today at the Web 2.0 Summit mini-conference in San Francisco, Schmidt would not say who would offer the …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2010, 23:13