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9th December 2010 Archive

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  • Novell slaps iPhone interface on cloud control kit

    Jobsian remote console

    Novell said it would do rapid release cycles when it launched its Cloud Manager tool back in September, and sure enough, the beleaguered (and acquired) software maker is already kicking out the 1.1 release of its cloud control freak. As El Reg explained back in September, Cloud Manager is a kind of uber-operating system that …

    Cloud 9 Dec 01:22

  • Salesforce wants some Ruby love

    Dreamforce 2010 $212m goes a long way

    Why would a company that spent 10 years delivering CRM as a service drop $212m in cash and $27m in stock on a 30-person startup that hosts Ruby on Rails apps for devs on Amazon? Salesforce.com vice president of technology and co-founder Parker Harris was initially, oddly vague on Wednesday when explaining why his company just …

    Developer 9 Dec 06:25

  • LaCie XtremKey all-terrain USB flash drive

    Review Freeze it, cook it, dunk it, thump it

    Data security can mean a lot of things, from encryption to defence against cyber attacks. There’s backing up and archiving too, but with the XtremKey, LaCie has in mind the idea that you might want to secure your data against the rough and tumble of everyday life. So if trouble follows you around, you can be assured your …

    reghardware 9 Dec 07:00

  • Managing the Windows 7 migration

    Webcast All there is on optimising desktops

    Today at 11am we have a live broadcast where we’re inviting you to share your experiences and ask the questions that you’re still pondering about Windows 7 migrations. We’ve got a studio full of experts who between them should know everything there is to know about Microsoft desktop upgrades and the challenges and choices you’ …

    Tech Panel 9 Dec 08:19

  • Feds seek 'compliance program' for US kit reseller

    Company fingered in e-fencing case; 2 men face jail

    Two men have been charged with fencing stolen EMC equipment and wire fraud offences relating to almost a million dollars of nicked hardware. A US equipment reseller firm allegedly implicated in fencing of stolen kit also faces a landmark suspended-sentence "compliance program". Kevin Kelly, 33, of North Carolina and Mark …

    Channel Register 9 Dec 09:11

  • Sprint CEO admits WiMAX gamble didn't pay off

    Great statements of the obvious

    Dan Hesse has admitted that his company's gamble in investing in WiMAX hasn't paid off in providing Sprint with a first-mover advantage – even if it has turned out great for customers. Sprint's CEO was interviewed by Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital conference in San Francisco, as reported by PC World, and admitted that …

    Mobile 9 Dec 10:12

  • Has Seagate added a 1TB SFF drive to its Constellation?

    Hard drive maker plays catch-up with WD's Scorpio Blue

    Some online disk drive sites are listing a 1TB 2.5-inch Seagate Constellation drive, which shouldn't exist. Seagate certainly has 1 and 1.5TB small form factor (SFF) drives inside its FreeAgent GoFlex external drives but has not announced such capacities for internally-mounted SFF drive product. Span lists a drive with a …

    Storage 9 Dec 10:18

  • Apple patches QuickTime to root out 15 ugly vulns

    Press and hold that bug spray can, baby

    Apple plugged 15 vulns in its QuickTime media player earlier this week. The patch applies to Windows and Mac OS X 10.5 versions of the software. Apple's Snow Leopard OS received the required fixes for the flaws in November. With the exception of one update, 14 vulns were labelled as "critical" by Apple, and could "lead to …

    Operating Systems 9 Dec 10:19

  • World of diamonds bigger than the Ritz discovered

    Strange carbon mountains of farflung planet

    A curious world orbiting a star 1200 light years from our own solar system could be home to diamonds of enormous, unparalleled size, say boffins. The planet WASP-12b was discovered last year by a group of UK astronomers, the Wide Angle Search for Planets. Since then it has been probed intensively by NASA's Spitzer telescope in …

    Space 9 Dec 10:23

  • Microsoft wins tasty US federal gov agency cloud contract

    This time Google gets gripey

    Microsoft secured a cloudy contract win with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday in its latest cat-and-mouse play with rival Google to score lucrative deals with government bodies Stateside. Just last week, Google scooped up 17,000 government drones from the US General Services Administration (GSA) as part of a …

    Cloud 9 Dec 11:07

  • Google Voice brings expectation management to Santa 2.0

    Letters are so 20th Century

    Google has set up a Santa calling service, offering personalised calls from the man himself, along with Facebook and Twitter updates, as the man in the red suit goes high tech. Mr Claus has apparently signed up with the chocolate factory and has a voice-mail account where ankle-biters can leave him a message, and a website …

    Telecoms 9 Dec 11:13

  • Lost ancient civilisation's ruins lie beneath Gulf, says boffin

    'Oldest boat' perhaps used by Garden of Eden refugees

    Refugees from a lost civilisation whose ruins and relics lie submerged on the seabed deep beneath the Persian Gulf may have founded ancient, advanced Middle Eastern societies thousands of years ago in the time before the Pharaohs. According to Jeffrey Rose, a Birmingham uni archaeologist, recent excavations and discoveries …

    Science 9 Dec 11:16

  • iPad-smuggling women pinched in China

    How many iPhones can you stick up your jumper?

    Chinese customs caught 14 women trying to smuggle iPhones and iPads into China from Hong Kong. Authorities in Shenzhen caught the grey importers with $143,000 worth of kit. The 14 women had 88 iPads and 340 phones between them – one woman had an impressive 65 phones strapped to her waist and another 20 in her handbag, the …

    Mobile 9 Dec 11:18

  • Donkey Kong Country Returns

    Review Great apes

    If Doctor Who: Return to Earth shows how weak some Wii games can be, Donkey Kong Country Returns demonstrates the exact opposite. This game is bloody good, and I really need say no more. Mega bite The staggering thing is that it's a rehash of a title released on the SNES more than 15 years ago. The orginal Donkey Kong …

    reghardware 9 Dec 12:00

  • Nick Cave smashes speed camera with Jag

    Microscopic cog in a catastrophic van plan

    Australian singer, actor, writer and Kylie-killer* Nick Cave laid waste to one of Hove's speed cameras when he crashed his car into it. The incident occurred on Tuesday evening, when the 53-year-old's Jaguar saloon smashed through a barrier on the seafront and took out the innocent tool of governmental oppression, the …

    Bootnotes 9 Dec 12:08

  • E-book reader demand boom near

    Fahrenheit 451

    Sales of e-book readers are going to skyrocket - but not for a few years yet. So says market watcher ABI Research, and it's conclusion is largely backed by fellow analyst Gartner. According to ABI, the e-book reader biz won't boom until 2013 when, it reckons, shipments will increase by almost 100 per cent on the previous year …

    reghardware 9 Dec 12:09

  • Three bumps up mobile broadband contract charge

    You did read the small print, didn't you?

    Three is pushing up the price of its broadband, applying a rather-generous inflationary rate to customers who thought they were on fixed-rate contracts. Customers who are currently paying £15 a month for Three's broadband will be billed an extra 56 pence next month – ex VAT of course – in a rise that Three describes as " …

    Mobile 9 Dec 12:14

  • Bloated US patent holder sues 9 tech companies

    Intellectual Ventures files lawsuits against McAfee, Symantec, Hynix, world...

    An Intellectual Property-gathering outfit founded by ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold has thrown a patent infringement sueball at nine tech companies. Intellectual Ventures filed a lawsuit against three semiconductor vendors - Altera Corp, Microsemi Corp and Lattice Semiconductor Corp - in the US District Court of Delaware. …

    Financial News 9 Dec 12:45

  • Death of ID card scheme left £6.5m of kit going begging

    Should it plug a budget hole or a landfill hole?

    The government is working out what to do with £6.5m worth of kit left gathering dust after it pulled the plug on the ID card scheme earlier this year. Home Secretary Theresa May was asked in a commons question: what the cost was of IT equipment purchased by or on behalf of the government in respect of the identity cards scheme …

    Government 9 Dec 13:07

  • Visa approves wireless payment chip

    Two phones approved to surf the payWave

    Visa has approved a microSD card for proximity payments, slotted into the BlackBerry Bold or Samsung Galaxy S, paving the way for payWave transactions on a mobile phone. Visa's approval doesn't mean the cards, which come from DeviceFidelity, will definitely be available, but it does mean a bank currently issuing Visa payWave …

    reghardware 9 Dec 13:19

  • PARIS concocts commemorative cocktail

    NSFD * Readers invited to name high-altitude beverage

    The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team is delighted to announce today that it has concocted a cocktail in honour both of our patron saint Paris Hilton and the heroic Playmonaut who on 28 October piloted the Vulture 1 vehicle to earth from a dizzying 89,591 feet. Our inspiration for the commemorative beverage came …

    PARIS 9 Dec 13:32

  • Facebook boydroid to hand over theoretical riches to charity

    It's like Bill Gates2.0 – the movie!

    Mark Zuckerberg clearly has more invisible money than he knows what to do with, given that the Web2.0 paper billionaire has agreed to offload most of his wealth to charity. The Facebook founder's philanthropic assertion echoes that of tech titan Bill Gates and in fact was instigated by the Microsoft chairman's own "Giving …

    Financial News 9 Dec 13:43

  • Anonymous hackers' Wikileaks 'infowar' LATEST ROUNDUP

    DDoS bombardment spreads: Op Payback to spare Twitter

    Online "warfare" between the friends and enemies of Wikileaks continues, with an increasing number of organisations involved. The hacktivist collective Anonymous, operating under the banner Operation:Payback, has continued to mount various types of hacking attacks including DDoS strikes – supplemented by the use of illegal …

    Government 9 Dec 14:08

  • Dell and Compellent are exclusive

    They are talking about a business marriage

    Dell and Compellent are talking about a possible business combination. The two companies have issued a statement saying that they are engaged in advanced discussions. Dell would acquire all Compellent's outstanding common stock at $27.50/share, meaning about $876m – which will disappoint all the bid-hungry investors gamblers …

    Storage 9 Dec 14:53

  • Lock and load: Birmingham launches gunfire location IT

    Hot shotspotting in the city

    The Safer Birmingham Partnership has begun to use communications technology developed in the US to locate the source of gunfire in the city. Birmingham is the first UK city to install the Shotspotter Gunshot Location System. The technology can locate gunshot fire within a 25-metre radius from up to 2km (1.24 miles) away. It …

    Policing 9 Dec 14:54

  • Wikileaks whistle-blower: Where's the money, Julian?

    Bradley Manning fund hasn't got a penny

    "There has been an unconscionable failure [in conventional journalism] to protect sources. It is those sources who take all the risks... journalists don't take their job seriously" - Julian Assange. In the rush to beatify St Julian d'Assange, one figure in the Wikileaks saga has been overlooked. US Army Private Bradley Manning …

    Government 9 Dec 15:03

  • Cupid Wings iPhone stand

    Txt Take For lovers - and worshippers at the Church of Jobs

    Product reviews in 140 characters... Thanks to Totally Funky for the review sample. Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here. ®

    reghardware 9 Dec 15:08

  • Redstor schools the cloud with EMC's ATMOS

    The best box and API for the job

    UK-based cloud backup provider Redstor is moving into cloud storage using EMC's Atmos hardware and software and a data centre build out programme. Reading-based Redstor has three main businesses: reselling, managed backup and data protection services, and cloud backup. Regarding the managed services, co-founder Tony Ruane said …

    Storage 9 Dec 15:18

  • ICO makes mincemeat of nativity data protection piffle

    Parents can take pics of their kids. Sing hosanna!

    The Information Commissioner’s Office (pdf) is sending a seasonal note to schools to reiterate that parents taking pics of their offspring kitted out as angels or shepherds is not a Data Protection matter. Meanwhile, Leicester police - previously castigated as bearers of bad tidings - have declared goodwill to all men bearing …

    Policing 9 Dec 15:52

  • Call of Duty DDoS attack police arrest teen

    Manc boy nicked after score-boosting attack on fellow gamers

    A 17-year-old from Manchester has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police's e-crime unit (PCeU) on suspicion of being behind a denial of service attack against the online game Call of Duty. The teenager was arrested in the Beswick area of Manchester early on Thursday morning. He is suspected of involvement in denial of …

    Crime 9 Dec 16:02

  • Amazon Kindles cash from Wikileaks

    Updated Won't host the leaked cables but will sell them

    Amazon's UK tentacle is selling a Kindle version of the Wikileaks documents for £7.37. Although the documents are freely available, it seems an odd move from Amazon which kicked Wikileaks off its hosting service. Even odder Amazon's US Kindle store is not stocking the collection of documents. The book is published by Heinz …

    Music and Media 9 Dec 16:22

  • Apple turns to Intel for low-end laptop graphics

    Mole alleges snub for Nvidia

    Apple is said to be gearing up to use the next generation of Intel graphics in its MacBook and - probably - MacBook Air - laptops in place of the Nvidia technology they currently use. So claims CNet, citing unnamed moles - whether at Apple or - more likely, we'd say - Intel isn't made clear. Intel's new graphics tech will be …

    reghardware 9 Dec 16:43

  • Google morphs Gmail into Microsoft backup service

    Backup today. Flee Redmond tomorrow

    Google has unveiled a service that lets businesses use Gmail as a back-up for Microsoft Exchange. Known as Google Message Continuity, the service replicates all your Microsoft Exchange data on Google's servers. If your Exchange servers crash or you take them down for maintenance, your employees can open up a browser and switch …

    Applications 9 Dec 17:00

  • WikiLeaks supporters milk Twitter API in DDoS attacks

    Hacking 2.0

    WikiLeaks supporters are milking Twitter's application programming interface to carry out attacks that have led to crippling slowdowns at MasterCard.com, Visa.com and other websites that cut off funding to the whistle-blower outfit. A relatively new Java-based version of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, which protesters use to direct …

    Enterprise Security 9 Dec 19:12

  • Flame throwing Apache flees Oracle's Java group

    Updated 'You failed us and everybody else'

    Apache is officially quitting Java's governing body after 10 years, slamming Oracle, the JCP, and fellow JCP members in the process. On Thursday, the ASF submitted its resignation from JCP's Java Standard and Enterprise Edition (SE/EE) Executive Committee as a direct consequence of the Java Community Process (JCP) vote to …

    Developer 9 Dec 19:31

  • Canonical COO jumps clear after 10 months

    Asay preps SproutCore and HTML5 future

    Canonical's chief operating officer is leaving the company after less than a year, and heading to an HTML5 start up. Matt Asay said the COO role was not what he really wanted and he preferred being more involved on a day-to-day basis with customers. Asay, a regular contributor to The Reg, called his decision "difficult" and …

    Operating Systems 9 Dec 20:44

  • Google 'open' to Chrome Web Store without the Chrome bit

    Fashions browser agnostic 'installable' web apps

    Update: This story has been updated with comments from Mozilla's Jay Sullivan. Google says it's "open" to building a version of its brand new Chrome Web Store that plays nicely with other browsers, and it has already fashioned tools that will allow Chrome Web Store shoppers to "install" apps on other browsers. In May, when …

    Applications 9 Dec 21:21

  • Dutch police arrest 16-year-old WikiLeaks avenger

    The first, but probably not the last

    Dutch police said they have arrested a 16-year-old boy for participating in web attacks against MasterCard and Visa as part of a grassroots push to support WikiLeaks. A press release issued on Thursday (Google translation here) said the unnamed boy confessed to the distributed denial-of-service attacks after his computer gear …

    Crime 9 Dec 21:38

  • MokaFive does VDI for Windows 7

    3.0 release adds multi-tenancy, embedded security

    MokaFive is offering an alternative to the pain and expense of migrating corporate desktops to Windows 7 with with release 3.0 of its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) MokaFive Suite. Companies with aging PCs have to do something to bring their machines up to date, and MokaFive, a relative newcomer to the VDI space, is …

    Virtualization 9 Dec 21:52

  • Google 'Crankshaft' inspired by Sun Java HotSpot

    Bak to 'adaptive compilation'

    Google's new "Crankshaft" JavaScript engine was inspired at least in part by Sun's Java Hotspot performance engine, the reengineered Java virtual machine that Sun released in 1999. A number of developers who built Crankshaft, including Danish programmer Lars Bak, also worked on HotSpot. Bak led the HotSpot team at Sun, and he' …

    Developer 9 Dec 22:06

  • Steve Ballmer proposed $15bn Facebook acquisition

    Walk of shame with Zuckerberg

    Microsoft's reported to have conceded it once tried to buy Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook for $15bn. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, made two trips to meet Zuckerberg at the company's HQ in Palo Alto, California, where he popped the proposal during a long walk. The tease Zuckerberg rebuffed Ballmer, as he wanted to …

    Music and Media 9 Dec 23:08