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19th November 2010 Archive

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  • Yahoo! Connected TV to open paid app store

    Calling! all! money! hungry! coders!

    Developers can now build for-pay widgets for Yahoo!'s Connected TV platform. Yahoo! will distribute these third-party mini apps through its Yahoo! Connected TV Store, due to launch in March of next year. The store's developer program is now open to coders, and widgets can be build with Yahoo!'s existing widget SDK, …

    Developer 19 Nov 2010, 03:10

  • Open source Drupal takes Gardens path to big business

    Open..and Shut One per cent of the web. And beyond

    Even as we rapidly approach a future where most software lives on the web, with acronyms like HTML5 and SaaS pointing the way, it's easy to overlook a primary building blog of yesterday's web, Drupal, and its effects on the future web. Drupal founder Dries Buytaert claims that Drupal already powers one per cent of the web. Could …

    Software 19 Nov 2010, 05:00

  • Platform Computing doubles up cluster management

    Bigger grids, same price, and GPUs too

    Supercomputer clusters are getting larger and larger, and that is Platform Computing has to revamp its Load Sharing Facility to version 8 and double up the capacity of the workload scheduling software for grids and clusters. The updated LSF also supports GPU co-processors as full citizens of the cluster. With LSF 7, Platform …

    HPC 19 Nov 2010, 06:00

  • Apple files patent for iPad weight loss

    More fiber in the diet

    Apple has applied for a patent that appears to be a tacit admission of a common complaint about its magical and revolutionary iPad: the Cupertinian slablet is just too damn heavy. Apple's solution: a light-but-rigid body made not of aluminium, but of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). The patent application, "Reinforced …

    Mobile 19 Nov 2010, 06:00

  • Top Ten Arcade Classics

    Product Round-up Shinryuken! Feel my burning vigour!

    What do you remember about being twelve? I remember spending a whole summer wishing I could hang out with the cool kids but instead nicking stuff from Woolworths and ramming coin after coin into Dragon’s Lair and Defender. Seventeen? Sometimes I ponder my misspent youth playing pool in Sneaky Dee’s and ramming coin after coin …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 07:00

  • Content 'made available' in jurisdiction where server is located

    It's not about where it's read, says High Court

    A company is responsible for 'making available' internet-hosted material in the country where its host server is based, not in the country where the material is read or used, the High Court has said. The Court ruled that the law should be applied to material hosted on the internet in the same way that it applies to satellite …

    Media 19 Nov 2010, 07:00

  • Can NetApp catch up with EMC?

    Maybe seven quarters are all that's needed

    NetApp has announced good but not fabulous results for its latest quarter, and has a slowing growth forecast. Can it realistically catch up with EMC? NetApp earned a satisfyingly huge chunk of change in its second fiscal 2011 quarter, which finished on 29 October. Revenues were $1.207bn, up 33 per cent on the year-ago quarter …

    Storage 19 Nov 2010, 09:26

  • Who could buy Compellent?

    Opinion Cisco could, if it wanted to blow its EMC relationship to kingdom come

    Who is likely to buy Compellent? There has been twittering about Cisco, on the basis that Cisco doesn't get enough out of VCE, its partnership with VMware and EMC, and needs to do something more. My off-the-cuff reaction here is, sure, Cisco could buy Compellent, if it really, really wanted to blow its EMC relationship to …

    Channel Register 19 Nov 2010, 10:10

  • Chinese bride sentenced to hard labour for retweet

    Wedding day arrest for anti-Japanese message

    It's not just the UK that takes action against people being nasty on Twitter - Chinese authorities have sentenced Cheng Jianping to a year's "Re-education Through Labour" for retweeting an anti-Japanese message. Cheng retweeted a message from her fiance – who has not been charged – which suggested nationalist students …

    Government 19 Nov 2010, 10:13

  • Rim PlayBook to hit UK in Q2 2011

    Yanks get $500 tablet in Q1

    Waiting for Rim's PlayBook BlackBerry tablet? Don't hold your breath - it's not out over here until April 2011 at the earliest. So says Gregory Wade, head of Rim's Asia operation, by way of local newssite DigiTimes. Wade said the PlayBook will debut in the US and Rim's native Canada in Q1 2011, with a broader roll-out …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 10:21

  • IBM's tools give Big Data a good seeing to

    Company shares nothing but Hadoop and GPFS

    IBM is using Hadoop to make its General Parallel File System capable of dealing with Big Data - extremely large data sets - for cloud-based analytic computing. Announced at the Supercomputing 2010 conference, the General Parallel File System-Shared Nothing Cluster (GPFS-SNC) project at IBM Research Almaden involves an …

    Developer 19 Nov 2010, 10:36

  • Christians vs metalheads in FB flame war

    Catholics shut down 'Black Mass' metal festival

    If you want to start a contemporary religious war, what better place to launch it than through Facebook? Residents of Sydney, Australia who had been looking forward to a "black metal festival", scheduled for next weekend, must now find other entertainment, as Catholic group, Catholics Taking Action (CTA), successfully mounted …

    Bootnotes 19 Nov 2010, 10:39

  • The Project Management survival guide

    Webcast El Reg talks PM with Lastminute.com and friends

    On Wednesday 24th Nov at 1pm we’ll be talking about some of the latest trends in project and program management and discussing the practicalities of project delivery over the coming decade. Along the way, we'll be considering the management of user expectation and involvement, as well as how to deal with commonly encountered …

    Project Management 19 Nov 2010, 10:50

  • NASA's new 'Bullet' airship to fly from Moffett Field

    Uses tech from US Navy's zeppelin aircraft carriers

    An Alabama firm building a 235-foot airship says that the mighty craft will soon make its maiden flight from Moffett Field, the former US Navy dirigible base located at NASA's Ames campus in California. The "Bullet™ Class 580", interestingly, uses a key technology employed by America's flying aircraft carrier airships of the …

    Science 19 Nov 2010, 11:00

  • The Economist publishes iPad app

    Free-trade tablet

    Anti-Corn Law nag rag The Economist has arrived on the iPad and iPhone in the form of a dedicated app. Subscribers - whether of the web or paper version - don't have to pay for the tablet-enscribed content. The rest of us will have to cough up £3.49 for each issue, billed through iTunes. The app itself is free. From paper …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 11:01

  • DWP spreads IT spending around

    Proportionately less work dished out to two biggest suppliers

    Figures for May to September of this year appear to show the Department for Work and Pensions giving proportionately less work to its two largest suppliers. Spending data published by the government on 19 November shows it spent £224.3m with HP during the five month period, its main IT partner and second largest supplier of …

    Channel Register 19 Nov 2010, 11:09

  • Court orders naming of celeb phone hack hacks

    News of the Whom

    A judge has ordered the private investigator who intercepted the voicemail messages of politicians and celebrities to name the journalists who commissioned the illicit hacks. Glenn Mulcaire and disgraced News of the World Royal correspondent Clive Goodman were jailed for six months and four years, respectively, back in 2007 …

    Law 19 Nov 2010, 11:31

  • Street View hits 20 German cities

    Partial surrender to Google's all-seeing eye

    Twenty German cities yesterday partially surrendered to Google's Street View, as the Great Satan of Mountain View finally rolled out the results of its spymobile invasion. During extended arm-wrestling with the German authorities, Google agreed to allow citizens to request their properties be blurred before the service went …

    Media 19 Nov 2010, 11:49

  • BOFH: Look out!

    Episode 17 In BOFH office, squeaky wheel greases you

    “So what do the following have in common?” the Boss seethes “My desk drawer, the complaints box at reception and the boot of the deputy CEO’s car?” “They’re all places you can take a dump?” the PFY asks, pouring a little petrol on the flames of the Boss’ annoyance. “WHAT!?” “You’ll have to forgive my assistant” I interject …

    BOFH 19 Nov 2010, 12:00

  • Vodafone warns investors of rival spoilers

    The end of all-you-can-eat

    Vodafone's CEO has declared tiered data pricing, based on consumption, is inevitable while the company's US arm is already working out how to provide faster wireless to its best customers. Speaking at an investors' conference, and reported by the FT, Vittorio Colao said that while smaller operators might hold on to unlimited …

    Mobile 19 Nov 2010, 12:04

  • Foxconn hit by worker protests

    Tech industry's favourite manufacturer

    Manufacturing giant Foxconn faced more worker protests this week with about 7,000 staff taking to the streets to protest against poor pay and plans to relocate some work to inland provinces. The million-strong company raised wages in the wake of worldwide criticism of Foxconn employment practices and an apparent spate of …

    Financial News 19 Nov 2010, 12:28

  • A Linux server OS that's fiddly but tweakable

    Review ClearOS gives 'enablers' more control

    ClearOS is the new name for Point Clark Network's ClarkConnect, which was a commercial server distro, released in 2000, with a limited free version. Now, though, Point Clark has restructured and the distro is managed by ClearConnect, which has made it free and open source. The result is that what was the top-of-the-range …

    Operating Systems 19 Nov 2010, 12:30

  • Shell's London office UNDER WATER and besieged by GIANT EELS

    Oil giant's riverside office now part of the river

    Royal Dutch Shell's London headquarters has been shuttered since Monday (15 November) after the River Thames decided to pour into the iconic office building. The Register understands that the oil giant's Shell Centre, which stands on London’s South Bank in Waterloo, is awash with water from the River Thames, scuppering …

    CIO 19 Nov 2010, 12:44

  • MS security tool interferes with Chrome and Adobe updates

    Nanny software niggles nixed

    Microsoft has updated its security protection tools following a glitch that prevented third-party applications – including Google Chrome and Adobe Reader – from updating properly. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is designed to thwart a range of tricks used by malware writers to infect systems. However a …

    Security 19 Nov 2010, 12:49

  • Three 'human hotspots' hand out free Wi-Fi

    MiFi marketing malarkey

    Mobile phone network Three is highlighting gadget users' need for "a strong and reliable 3G connection" by... er... giving them free Wi-Fi access. Three today sent out "human hotspots", each equipped with one of the carrier's MiFi HSDPA modem-cum-access point gadgets. Anyone who spots one of these white folk can grab some …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 13:01

  • Angry Birds struggle to take on Androids

    While Adobe chalks up another victory

    Angry Birds developer Rovio is mulling creating multiple versions for different Android handsets, as fragmentation of the platform causes headaches for anyone not using Adobe's Flash. Angry Birds is hugely popular on iOS, and was eagerly anticipated for Android, but the fragmentation of the Android platform has prompted Rovio …

    Mobile 19 Nov 2010, 13:03

  • All you need to know about service assurance

    Webcast: Live Now! The devil is in the detail

    Today at 6pm GMT, 10am PST, 1pm EST, 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 years, most …

    Tech Panel 19 Nov 2010, 13:13

  • Dell's storage strategy has a hole to fill

    Comment EqualLogic's unequal status

    Dell's storage strategy is in a mess. While EqualLogic booms, its other products languish. The EMC-sourced CLARiiONs and Celerras are failing to deliver the revenue goods. This is the gloomy picture implied by Dell's results since the EqualLogic purchase closed in February 2008. The latest results for Dell's third fiscal 2011 …

    Storage 19 Nov 2010, 13:17

  • PCI Express 3.0 spec sneaks out

    Shush, members only

    The PCI-SIG - the organisation behind the PCI Express - quietly released the base spec for version 3.0 of the bus standard. PCIe 3.0 was originally due to be released in 2009, but in August of that year it was delayed until 2010, in order, it was said at the time, to ensure compatibility with PCIe 1 and 2. Come January 2010, …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 13:21

  • New RAF transport plane is 'Euro-w*nking makework project'

    Gov refuses to admit what we'll pay for toss A400M

    A peer and former defence minister has described the A400M military transport plane - which is being bought by the cash-strapped UK armed forces for a secret but outrageous amount of money - as a "Euro-wanking make-work project" in the written Parliamentary record. If only the UK had had the sense to bail out of it. The …

    Government 19 Nov 2010, 13:22

  • Why Microsoft is Acorn and Symbian is the new CP/M

    Opinion Today's phones are just like '80s computers

    Today's glut of mobile platforms is surprisingly reminiscent of their proliferation on desktops during the 1980s: an analogy which might show how things will develop over the next few decades. Comparing the operating systems running on today's phones with those of yesteryear is curiously easy - it fits too well to be just …

    Mobile 19 Nov 2010, 13:38

  • Chinese retailers sell Apple-only white iPhone 4s

    How many did Apple make - and how many leaked out?

    Chinese resellers are offering locals the near-mythological white iPhone 4, and it seems they are the genuine article. According to website Giz-China, punters can pay between Yuan 5500 and 8000 (£518-753) for the 16GB version and clearly a whole lot more for the 32GB model. Source: Giz-China The site availed itself of one …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 13:45

  • Super Meat Boy

    Review Play for high steaks

    While hitting the sack early with my girlfriend has it's appeal, I've recently preferred to stay up late in the living room playing with my meat. By that I mean, of course, bashing away on the Xbox at Super Meat Boy, a simple platformer I've been unable to put down. 2D games have made a comeback recently and some real gems can …

    reghardware 19 Nov 2010, 14:00

  • Anti-bullying charity demands more laws on cyber-bullying

    Beats up on existing offences

    Today is the last day of National Anti-Bullying Week, and UK charity BeatBullying has been talking up the need for new laws. But the organisation can't seem to pinpoint what precisely is needed, given that existing laws cover pretty much every aspect of the issue. The not-uncontroversial BeatBullying mounted an online petition …

    Law 19 Nov 2010, 14:19

  • New owner slips into unwitting BoJo's domain

    Mayor loses campaign site to domainer

    Boris Johnson is trying to recover the domain name backboris.com, after the London mayor's people apparently forgot to renew the registration. BoJo used the domain for the official website of his successful 2007/8 campaign to become Mayor of London, but Whois records show that the registration was allowed to expire in July …

    Broadband 19 Nov 2010, 15:00

  • Maude: Gov contracts 'made my eyes water'

    Sloppy senior ministers don't know what they're signing

    Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has said he was shocked by things he found when renegotiating government contracts over the summer. Speaking at the government's Open Data conference on 19 November 2010, he told the audience that in the past departments have signed inefficient deals because senior ministers "have not …

    Channel Register 19 Nov 2010, 15:16

  • Wiseguy ticket scalpers used botnets to outwit Captchas

    Badfellas bust a captcha in your (super)dome

    A gang of ticket touts have admitted that they hired networks of compromised PCs to defeat CAPTCHAs that would normally have thwarted their plan to automatically purchase tickets for high interest events. The trio - who operated a firm called Wiseguy Tickets (now there's a name you can trust - Ed) snapped up tickets for gigs …

    Security 19 Nov 2010, 15:17

  • Anti-piracy lawyers 'knowingly targeted the innocent', says law body

    Watchdog howls at 'revenue-generating scheme'

    A major law firm knew it sometimes had no reliable evidence of unlawful filesharing when it demanded hundreds of pounds damages from internet users, according to the solicitors' watchdog. London-based Davenport Lyons threatened thousands of people with legal action for alleged copyright infringement between 2006 and 2009. They …

    Law 19 Nov 2010, 15:25

  • Google to scrub slurped UK Wi-Fi data

    'Significant achievement', trumpets Information Commissioner

    Google has agreed to delete the slurped Wi-Fi data its Street View spymobiles "inadvertently collected" as they prowled the UK's highways and byways. The Information Commissioner's Office has announced that Google has also "signed a commitment to improve data handling", and faces an ICO audit of its "internal privacy structure …

    Law 19 Nov 2010, 15:40

  • A race to the finish

    Project management Pert, critical path or crawl to the line?

    Would you run 145 miles from Birmingham to London non-stop for fun? Of course not, but most years about 80 “ultra” runners do just that. They share the loneliness of the long distance project manager. These brave souls running the Grand Union Canal Race risk exhaustion and collapse on some lonely stretch of canal but most of …

    Project Management 19 Nov 2010, 16:06

  • Amazon launches book gifting service

    As sure as there's a 'X' in 'Christmas'

    Amazon has launched a new moneymaker service: you can now send Kindle books as gifts to anyone with an email address, whether or not they own one of Amazon's lightweight e-readers. There's now no need to leave your computer for holiday book-buying The new program allows you to choose e-gifts from among Amazon's 725,000-plus …

    Media 19 Nov 2010, 19:09

  • DHS airport spooks stalk star hacker

    Why are the feds trailing Moxie Marlinspike?

    Last weekend, as US-based security researcher Moxie Marlinspike snoozed during a layover at the Frankfurt Airport, he awoke to a scene straight out of a Franz Kafka novel. “Some dude shows up with a picture of me on his cell phone, and he's just looking through the crowd at the gate until he finds me,” Marlinspike told The …

    Security 19 Nov 2010, 19:25

  • iPad apps: the 10 smartest and 10 stupidest

    From the sublime to the 'WTF?'

    As competitors to Apple's "magical and revolutionary" iPad begin to appear, expect Jobs & Co. to argue that a key advantage of their tablet over the Samsung Galaxy Tab, RIM BlackBerry PlayBook, et al. is the vast collection of iPad apps available in the iOS App Store. Well, yes and no. There are, indeed, some fine apps …

    Media 19 Nov 2010, 20:04

  • Oracle names date for next Java

    (Nearly) nothing can stop us

    Oracle has set a date for the completion of the next version of Java, hard on the heels of submitting its plan to Java's governing body for approval. The database giant has given July 28, 2011 as the date for when the Java Development Kit (JDK) 7 will be released to general availability. Previously, Oracle's had set "mid" 2011 …

    Developer 19 Nov 2010, 20:54

  • Apple preps CDMA-GSM 'World iPad'?

    Plus skinniness and video chat

    Apple is rumored to be readying a next-generation "World iPad" that works on both GSM and CDMA networks, presumably in the hope of blanketing the world with a new version of its magical and revolutionary device. "Apple is going to be ratcheting down production of the existing 3G iPad over the next two months in anticipation of …

    Media 19 Nov 2010, 20:57

  • Adobe (finally) adds security sandbox to Reader

    Locking down widely exploited app

    At long last, Adobe Systems has added a new security protection to Windows versions of its ubiquitous document reader that's designed to lock down one of the world's most exploited applications. The so-called sandbox, isolates Reader from sensitive Windows operations, such as the changing of operating system registry settings …

    Security 19 Nov 2010, 23:03