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15th December 2010 Archive

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  • Google Chrome OS mauled by Richard Stallman

    'Careless computing for suckers'

    Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman has attacked Google's still-gestating Chrome OS, arguing it's designed "to push people into careless computing." Stallman – who created the free Unix-style GNU operating system – has never been a fan of so-called cloud computing. At one point, he called it "worse than stupidity …

    Cloud 15 Dec 00:07

  • Feds probe '100 site' data breach

    McDonald's Silverpopped

    FBI agents looking into the theft of customer data belonging to McDonald's are investigating similar breaches that may have hit more than 100 other companies that used email marketing services from Atlanta-based Silverpop Systems . “The breach is with Silverpop, an email service provider that has over 105 customers,” Stephen …

    Security 15 Dec 00:12

  • Email protected by Fourth Amendment, says appeals court

    Landmark privacy shocker

    Police must obtain a warrant before accessing emails stored by internet service providers, a federal appeals court has ruled in a landmark decision that also struck down part of a 1986 law that allows warrantless interception of some digital data. The unanimous decision (PDF), from a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court …

    Networks 15 Dec 01:28

  • Air Force blocks access to sites that covered WikiLeaks

    The revolution will not be published

    The US Air Force is barring its personnel from using government computers to view The New York Times and 25 other websites that posted diplomatic memos released by WikiLeaks, according to news reports. When personnel try to view the banned websites -- which also include The Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel, Spain's El País and …

    Music and Media 15 Dec 04:45

  • Ten... sub-£150 PMPs

    Product Round-up Music and movies on a budget

    Budget PMPs are the missing link between a high-end video job and a standard MP3 player. With modern devices so advanced, some would class these PMPs as cell-phones without the option to call, a view I generally shared. However, without the distraction of ringtones and txt msgs, they have space to focus on getting the rest …

    reghardware 15 Dec 07:00

  • Blog network must label promo content under OFT glare

    If they pay, you've got to say, growls watchdog

    Consumer protection watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has forced a network of bloggers to make it clear when companies are paying it for coverage. The OFT investigated Handpicked Media under consumer protection laws. The company operates a network of sites purporting to offer editorial coverage of fashion, beauty, …

    Music and Media 15 Dec 08:30

  • HP inks $1.4bn outsourcing deal with energy firm E.ON

    CIO delighted to see back of 1,100 IT bods

    Hewlett-Packard and European energy mammoth E.ON IT announced they have signed a five-year, $1.4bn infrastructure tech-outsourcing services contract. Under the deal, HP is to provide data centre operations and workplace services. The agreement is expected to "strengthen E.ON’s competitiveness and create a more flexible …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 09:19

  • 'London black cabs to go electric in 2 weeks' – Boris Guardian

    Well, by 2020. Some of them. Partly electric, that is

    Black cabs "capable of zero tail pipe emission operation" will start to appear on the streets of London by the year 2020 under plans announced yesterday by mayor Boris Johnson. Hurry, Boris, hurry! The commitment comes as part of the mayor's new Air Quality Strategy (pdf), aimed at cleaning up various kinds of atmospheric …

    Environment 15 Dec 09:36

  • Geeks Guide2 Christmas 2010 - Part IV

    GG2 Gadgets, toys & guides

    In true geek style we will be wrapping up the fourth and final part of our trilogy. Covering a wide range of books, this week’s GG2 will provide you with the very best titles for Christmas shopping, from Superfreakonomics to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, World of Warcraft Cataclysm to golf. Superfreakonomics – …

    Site News 15 Dec 10:02

  • Three punts UNLIMITED smartphone package

    No really, it is, insists cellco

    Three has upgraded its The One mobile phone tariff to add "all-you-can-eat data" to the package. The cellco claimed the change will "challenge the limited offers and additional charges other operators levy on smartphone users". It added: "From today... all limits have been lifted on the amount of data you can consume on your …

    reghardware 15 Dec 10:39

  • Windows 7 really was some girl's idea, rules ASA

    'I'm a PC' ads not misleading, says regulator

    The ASA has ruled that it's perfectly plausible to claim that Windows 7 was developed by a bunch of rugby players' girlfriends, "private-browsing" dads, and spud-faced kids in Spanish cafes rather than a bunch of highly trained, generously paid developers in Redmond. The ruling came in response to eight complaints about one of …

    Operating Systems 15 Dec 11:02

  • British lags less chatty on mobiles

    Or getting niftier at hiding them

    British prisoners aren't as connected as they were last year - or prison wardens are losing the ability to find contraband mobiles. The figures come in a written answer to John McDonnell MP, who asked the question of the Secretary of State for Justice. The prison service has only been collecting national figures for the last …

    Mobile 15 Dec 11:04

  • Atos Origin buys Siemens IT wing in €850m deal

    Breakfast of 'European IT champions'. Or something

    French services giant Atos Origin is buying Siemens IT unit Solutions and Services (SIS), after signing an €850m deal with the German multinational. Under the agreement, Siemens will be a “sustainable shareholder” of Atos Origin for at least the next five years, with a 15 per cent stake, or 12.5 million shares, worth €414m. …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 11:10

  • Yahoo! axes 600 jobs

    Purple palace waves pink slips at workers

    Yahoo! began laying off around four per cent of its staff yesterday. The web outfit ran by Carol Bartz confirmed the job cuts on Tuesday, after rumours sprang up at the start of this month that hundreds of workers at the purple palace would be let go. Yahoo! said that despite its latest round of job cuts, the company would …

    Financial News 15 Dec 11:11

  • Critical IE update in biggest ever Patch Tuesday

    Internet Explorer? Is that thing still around?

    Microsoft released a bumper total of 17 bulletins on Tuesday - collectively addressing a total of 40 software security vulnerabilities - as part of its largest ever Patch Tuesday update. Only two of the patch batch earn the dread rating of critical. One critical fix (MS10-090) addresses five critical flaws in Internet Explorer …

    Enterprise Security 15 Dec 11:36

  • First 'cryovolcano' discovered on Titan, ice moon of Saturn

    Frosty cone spews molten slush-puppy MAGMA

    Boffins believe they have discovered the first "cryovolcano" known to the human race: a mountain on Titan, ice moon of Saturn, which has appeared in much the same way as an Earthly volcano - but which is made of ice and spews freezing slush rather than blazing molten rock. The feature in question has long been known to …

    Space 15 Dec 11:40

  • Firefox UI man quits Mozilla for new health-conscious venture

    Beefing up data to help you slim down

    Mozilla user-interface guru Aza Raskin is leaving the open source outfit to start a new venture called Massive Health. He announced the move on his blog yesterday, and said he wants to design personal health tools that are easier to navigate and to better understand the data a patient is dealing with. “Each of us has a unique …

    Applications 15 Dec 11:41

  • David Attenborough dino doc shows limits of 3D TV

    Documentary evidence

    The future of 3D TV is "event television" reckons eminent broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, the implication being that stereoscopic broadcasting isn't much cop for anything else. Speaking at the premiere of his upcoming Flying Monsters 3D documentary, Sir David likened 3D to the arrival of black-and-white television in the …

    reghardware 15 Dec 11:42

  • Trust and risk in the cloud

    Hosted apps Are cheap megahosters good for your business?

    Stick enough kit and multi-tenant software in one huge data centre and there is no arguing with the economies of scale that can be achieved. Megahosters like Google and Microsoft playing this game can deliver web search capability and online consumer services such as email, office and social networking tools at minimal cost per …

    Hosted Apps 15 Dec 12:09

  • Nokia cuts staff, fiddles with E7

    800 Finns for the chop

    Nokia is cutting back on staff while grappling with its new E7 Communicator, which will now not ship until next year. The layoffs were announced in October, and the number being cut in Finland has slimmed slightly following mandatory staff consultations: so now 800, rather than 850, Finns will be losing their jobs despite the …

    Mobile 15 Dec 12:27

  • Virtual Server backup software ranked

    CommVault Simpana and CA ARCserve top of the pops

    Analyst rankings of virtual server backup software put CommVault Simpana 9 and CA ARCserve r15 in place as the best all-round products. The DCIG 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide is a collaboration between two analyst firms: Jerome Wendt's DCIG and SMB Research. They admit to paid assignments from some of the …

    Virtualization 15 Dec 12:29

  • BBC audience: DAB less tasty than leftover turkey

    No digital sprouts for us, ta

    The BBC's own research has discovered that DAB radio leaves the audience nonplussed. "Although we did speak to some real fans of DAB, most licence fee payers we spoke to do not yet view DAB as an essential service in the way they do Freeview, for example," notes the study. "This certainly coloured their reaction to some of the …

    Music and Media 15 Dec 12:49

  • WikiLeaks urged to stop hosting on Russian blackhat ISP

    Virtual mafia state, indeed

    Security watchers have urged Wikileaks to stop hosting its material with a "bulletproof" Russian ISP believed to primarily cater to, or be controlled by, Russian cyber criminals. Wikileaks.org now points to a mirror of the site, mirror.wikileaks.info, hosted by Webalta, a blackhat ISP linked to a company called Heihachi Ltd, …

    Government 15 Dec 13:01

  • FBI 'planted backdoor' in OpenBSD

    Break out the code auditing kit

    Allegations that the FBI may have smuggled back doors or weaknesses into openBSD's cryptography have created uproar in the security community. Former government contractor Gregory Perry, who helped develop the OpenBSD crypto framework a decade ago, claims that contractors were paid to insert backdoors into OpenBSD's IPSec …

    Enterprise Security 15 Dec 13:12

  • Man caught w*nking over Alan Sugar's autobiography

    The book that just keeps on giving

    A man was caught masturbating in a public library while perusing Lord Alan Sugar's autobiography. The Sun reports that the unnamed individual was cuffed by police last Thursday at Crawley Library in West Sussex. The man, who is in his 30s, was seen behaving oddly as he browsed books in the biz section of the library. He …

    Bootnotes 15 Dec 13:17

  • Standard setter seeks to unify power, wired, wireless LANs

    One ring main to rule them ail

    The IEEE has put in place a programme to devise a standard that will bridge wired and wireless network technologies in the home. Dubbed P1905.1, the draft standard will "provide a common, protocol-agnostic interface" to not only 802.11 Wi-Fi and 802.3 Ethernet but also the less well-known MoCa (multimedia over co-ax) spec and …

    reghardware 15 Dec 13:17

  • Asus Eee PC 1015PEM

    Review The last ride of the netbook?

    Will someone please do something interesting with the netbook. Even Asus, the company that created this category of computer, doesn't appear to be able to do anything with it, if it's latest Eee PC, the 1015PEM, is anything to go by. Asus' Eee PC 1015PEM: latest netbook tech on board That's not to say the 1015PEM isn't a …

    reghardware 15 Dec 13:31

  • How GCHQ keeps tabs on FOI requestors

    Are widely available IT docs really a 'national security' matter?

    Following an FOI request instigated by yours truly, it has emerged that GCHQ are keeping tabs on FOI requestors. Even those requestors who have asked public authorities for a copy of GCHQ’s widely distributed, declassified, IT security documentation... The circumstances of my request illustrates why the FOIA exemption (Section …

    Government 15 Dec 13:38

  • Froyo snuggles into cosy Nook

    Cheapo Android tablet on the horizon?

    The NOOKcolor e-reader, from Barnes & Noble, is going to get Android 2.2 (Froyo) next month, very nearly turning the $250 e-reader into a usable tablet computer. We say very nearly, because it seems that Google's Android Marketplace won't be available on the NOOKcolor, which will instead get its own application store run by …

    Mobile 15 Dec 13:48

  • 'Blitzer' railgun already 'tactically relevant', boasts maker

    US Navy preps flyswatter for Muscovite 'Mosquito'

    It's all go in the world of hypervelocity railguns this week. Following Friday's 33-megajoule test shot carried out at a US Navy laboratory, it has also been announced that a different railgun known as "Blitzer" has recently carried out firings which suggest that it is almost combat ready. The Blitzer comes to us courtesy of …

    Science 15 Dec 14:02

  • Zuckerberg beats Assange to claim Person of the Year™

    Boy droid defeats leaky lag

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has defied WikiLeaks supporters to claim Time magazine's Person of the Year™ crown. Julian Assange came in third, behind the Tea Party, the chaotic but influential agglomeration of US right wingers. WikiLeaks had openly campaigned for him to win, issuing fanciful claims it would protect him …

    Bootnotes 15 Dec 14:13

  • Symantec adds file resource management

    Weeding the landslide

    Symantec has developed a specific file resource management product to help users weed out inactive and orphan files from the onrushing flood of unstructured file data heading their way. Dan Lamorena, a Symantec product marketing director, quotes Gartner claims that organisations face 800 per cent data growth over the next five …

    Storage 15 Dec 14:59

  • Brussels quizzes UK on school kiddyprinting

    This will hurt us more than it hurts you, Cameron minor

    The European Commission has raised "significant concerns" with Britain over schools that collect and store children's fingerprints. Officials in Brussels have written to the government after a father in Scotland, who objected to such a policy at his daughter's school, complained. Chris Halliday, whose case was first covered by …

    Law 15 Dec 15:20

  • Everything Everywhere ponders discrimination by packet

    Some packets are more equal than others

    Everything Everywhere has rather upset Which? by mooting the idea of tariffs based on services, rather than raw quantities of data. The premise is that a tariff might come bundled with a limited amount of data, but as much YouTube as you like, or only count data used visiting web sites outside a prescribed list. Such …

    Networks 15 Dec 15:40

  • Yahoo! search! stuffed! with! FILTH!

    Disgruntled insider smutbomb sabotage?

    Yahoo! search went downmarket yesterday, and defaulted to serving up porn to users. Clicking on search result thumbnails led surfers to a image of a man and a woman copulating, no matter what initial search term was first requested. The xxx image was served up around 200,000 times in the space of around 30 minutes on Tuesday …

    Applications 15 Dec 16:00

  • Google targets Internet Explorer shops with Chrome admin controls

    Chrome IE retooled for business

    Google had rolled out IT admin controls for deploying and configuring its Chrome browser across business networks. On Wednesday morning, the company unveiled an MSI installer for deploying Chrome on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines, and it beefed up the increasingly-popular browser with support for managed group policies and …

    Applications 15 Dec 19:39

  • World of Warcraft bot ban ticks off world of critics

    Analysis Glider crash, DMCA power grab, you name it

    A federal appeals panel has upheld a ban on the distribution of a once-popular World of Warcraft bot in a sprawling ruling that is sure to anger just about everyone with a stake in the debate over whether gamers have the right to tweak the titles they play. Tuesday's 3-0 decision from the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals said …

    Security 15 Dec 22:37