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4th January 2011 Archive

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  • Microsoft 'sorry' as Hotmail bug hits 17,000

    Load balancing without a safety net

    Microsoft has apologized, but not explained why nearly 20,000 Hotmail accounts were mysteriously emptied of their contents during the Christmas holiday. Corporate vice president for Windows Live Chris Jones blogged on Monday that 17,355 Windows Live Hotmail accounts had lost all their email messages during the course of what …

    Software 4 Jan 2011, 00:28

  • Micron revs flashy SSD line

    Boosts speeds, doubles capacity, shrinks to 25nm

    Micron has revved its RealSSD C300 flash products, moving them to a smaller process technology, doubling maximum capacity, increasing performance, and christening its new line the RealSSD C400. The existing C300 line uses 34nm process technology; the C400 uses 25nm technology, which has enabled Micron to double maximum …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 05:00

  • AMD gooses graphics, specs first CPU/GPU mashups

    CES Intel rival reveals Fusion partners

    AMD has released a new series of GPUs that it claims increases its lead in mobile graphics, and it has revealed a bit more about its Fusion line of processors. "One year ago AMD claimed the title of undisputed technology leader in mobile graphics performance," said AMD graphics-division general manager Matt Skynner, "and since …

    Hardware 4 Jan 2011, 05:01

  • Canon Pixma MG-5250 Wi-Fi all-in-one inkjet printer

    Review Hard copy companion for iOS 4 and Android users

    Canon has launched so many photo all-in-ones recently that only a handful of people outside Canon seem to be able to tell one from another. One thing I can say, though, is that if you go shopping for the Pixma MG-5250 to print your Christmas pics on, you shouldn’t be disappointed. Canon's Pixma MG-5250 Sleek, black and with …

    Hardware 4 Jan 2011, 07:00

  • EMC to release hot flood of unifying products

    Company blows own horn with 'record breaking' pledge

    EMC will introduce VNX5000 and VNX7500 products unifying its CLARiiON and Celerra mid-range storage arrays, according to documents seen by El Reg. The CLARiiON range is in its fourth CX4 generation and EMC's mainstream block-access storage array. It is accompanied by the Celerra NX4 and NX3e block and file-access array which …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 10:05

  • Beaver, correctly used, 'could save ecosystem', contends prof

    Furry gobblers ideal in conditions of thick wood

    In struggling to save endangered ecosystems, America frequently overlooks one of its most valuable resources, according to one expert. That resource is beaver. "Our argument is that the restoration target for streams with forested riparian zones has got to acknowledge the diversity brought to river systems by active beaver …

    Science 4 Jan 2011, 10:37

  • Ford cars get draconian parental controls

    Speed capped, wheelspin nixed, shock-jock radio stifled

    Teenagers will soon find radio shock jocks off the listings, along with loud music, speeding of any kind and wheel spins too – if Dad upgrades to Ford's MyKey system that is. MyKey works with the MyFord Touch system, a standard feature on many US models which can already lock on the traction control and limit the stereo volume …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 11:01

  • Blue Coat gain is Emulex loss

    Chief Marketing Officer jumps ship

    Steve Daheb, Emulex chief marketing officer, has jumped ship and landed the same position at Blue Coat Systems, the WAN acceleration vendor. The deed was announced by Blue Coat in the dog days of December, and Daheb gets an SVP title as well. He is "responsible for the company’s unified global marketing initiatives, corporate …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 11:03

  • BT confirms broadband upgrades for rotten boroughs

    Small exchanges, big winners

    Six communities where an online poll claimed every single BT customer voted for the local exchange to be upgraded will get faster broadband, the firm has confirmed. The "Race to Infinity" called on small towns and villages – about 25 per cent of its national network – to petition BT to be included in its ongoing fibre optic …

    Broadband 4 Jan 2011, 11:08

  • US bumblebees in 'alarming' decline

    Grim outlook for 'important pollinators'

    US researchers have announced that numbers of four species of Stateside bumblebees have declined to the point of extinction, and have fingered a pathogen genus thought to be responsible for a similar collapse in honeybee populations worldwide as a contributory cause. A team led by Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois …

    Science 4 Jan 2011, 11:14

  • Speed-cam stats to be published, indicates gov

    Think your local cam is pointless? Now you can prove it

    The Department for Transport is proposing that councils and police will have to publish data about speed cameras. The data could include accident rates at speed camera sites, vehicle speeds and the numbers of drivers prosecuted or offered training after offences are recorded on camera. Road safety minister Mike Penning said …

    Law 4 Jan 2011, 11:28

  • Facebook sells equity: Reportedly valued same as Tesco

    Wealthy insiders get early slice of boydroid pie

    Cash-loaded Goldman Sachs clients with more than $2m to wave around were told over the weekend that they would soon have the opportunity to invest in Facebook. According to a report in the New York Times, the brokerage plans to offer its clients up to $1.5bn in Facebook Inc equity. Goldman Sachs said in an email to would-be …

    Financial News 4 Jan 2011, 11:37

  • Storage experts: Does size matter?

    You The Expert Hard drives, large and small

    There has been much ado about 2.5-inch, small form-factor (SFF) hard disk drives of late and how they are better than the larger 3.5-inch drives. Does size matter? Several storage array vendors have started using SFF drives in their arrays. The VSP from Hitachi Data Systems is one such drive. HP has OEMed this from HDS's …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 12:00

  • Cowon iAudio X7 hard drive PMP

    Review Media player, meet external HDD

    Hard drive media players are becoming something of rarity these days, but that hasn't stopped Cowon going down the HDD route with its latest media player, iAudio the X7, a machine pitched as much against the Apple iPod Classic as at the all-singing, all-dancing iPod Touch. Cowon's iAudio X7: touchscreen tech Though the X7's …

    Hardware 4 Jan 2011, 12:00

  • Freshly reburied Storm zombies burst up out of graves again

    Fearful bot-plague returns in fake e-card scam?

    Security watchers have spotted a malware-seeded spam run that bears all the hallmarks of a new generation of the infamous Storm worm. If verified, the campaign will represent the return of a strain of malware that was endemic between January 2007 and April 2008 before falling into disuse. The worm may have been a victim of its …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 12:01

  • Rogue TV satellite brought to heel after auto reboot

    Wanderings, random shoutings ended by flat batteries

    Intelsat bird Galaxy 15 is responding to commands again, having exhausted its batteries over eight months of uncontrolled broadcasting, thus forcing an automatic reboot. The satellite rebooted on 23 December, and started transmitting its telemetry. Engineers from Intelsat picked that up and were able to get the rogue satellite …

    Networks 4 Jan 2011, 12:03

  • Gov gone wild: Mad new pub glasses, bread freedom introduced

    Oz style 'schooners', tiny thimbles of wine on offer

    Science minister David Willetts has launched a vicious January attack on the honest British pint in favour of Australian "schooners" and Continental micro-measures of wine. Under cover of claims to reduce red tape, Willetts will end rules restricting pubs to selling beer in pints and half pints to allow them to sell "schooners …

    Government 4 Jan 2011, 12:23

  • Swedish Pirate Party leader quits due to boredom

    Sucks to be a freetard

    The founder and chairman of the Pirate Party, Rickard Falkvinge, has quit after five years heading up the anti-copyright political vehicle, citing boredom as one of the reasons he decided to step down. “There’s nothing left for me to learn. Everything ahead would be subtle variations of things I had already done,” he said in a …

    Media 4 Jan 2011, 12:51

  • Small biz calls for end date on enhanced 17.5% VAT

    Good luck with that, chaps

    Small business lobbyists are calling on Chancellor George Osborne to review the 2.5 per cent hike in VAT once the UK budget deficit is back under control. From today the top rate of VAT goes up to 20 per cent. Retail analysts have warned that the real impact of this is likely to be price rises of between five and eight per …

    The Channel 4 Jan 2011, 13:05

  • Anonymous attacks Tunisia: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali offline

    Anarchists lurch about firing DDoS cannon incontinently

    A portion of 4Chan's denizens have taken it upon themselves to attack Tunisian government websites. The attack follows a decision by the Tunisian government to block access to WikiLeaks cables. Given the widespread use of censorware technology in Arab nations, we strongly suspect the Tunisian government is not alone in making …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 13:10

  • Firefox ahead of IE in Europe, boosted by Chrome effect

    Brussels compulsory freedom browse choice helped too

    Mozilla’s Firefox just pipped Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to the European post in December, with the open source browser grabbing slightly more market share in Europe than Redmond’s own surfing tool. According to StatCounter, which monitors browser usage, Firefox scored 38.11 per cent, while Internet Explorer pulled in 37.52 …

    Applications 4 Jan 2011, 13:36

  • 10-year-old girl becomes youngest ever supernova discoverer

    Chuffed Canadian nipper spots farflung exploding sun

    A 10-year-old Canadian girl has been crowned "the youngest person to discover a supernova" after spying the exploding star on amateur observatory images. Kathryn Aurora Gray spotted the magnitude 17 supernova on Sunday in an image of galaxy UGC 3378 in the constellation of Camelopardalis. The photo had been forwarded to her …

    Science 4 Jan 2011, 14:02

  • Whamcloud staffs up for brighter Lustre

    Life after Oracle

    There were rumblings over Christmas break of some big changes in the Lustre community, an open source file project under the control of Oracle, And while no one seems to want to go on the record at the moment, insideHPC has learned that some of Oracle’s key Lustre engineers have recently joined Whamcloud. This is great news …

    HPC 4 Jan 2011, 14:17

  • Garmin tells iPhone users where to go

    Appy travels

    Satnav giant Garmin's first turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone makes its debut at CES this week. The StreetPilot App grants users unlimited access to Garmin's navigation system. Greeted by two simple options: 'Where to?' and 'View Map', customers can look up addresses or services and while on the move, receive voice …

    Science 4 Jan 2011, 14:19

  • Disconsolate Spanish smokers driven out into blizzard

    Our man reports from the tierra del cigarrillo frío

    Glum Spanish smokers have resigned themselves to the idea that the taking of tobacco will in future be done on the street, as a ban on smoking in public places came into force on 2 January. Initial reaction to the clampdown was predictable enough, with one customer of my local bar declaring on Sunday morning the government …

    Bootnotes 4 Jan 2011, 14:27

  • Captain Marvell flops out mighty flash/disk hybrid controller

    Challenges Momentus to match Flashy girth

    Hoping to help bring affordable flash acceleration to hard disk drives, Marvell has crafted a hybrid controller that makes an SSD and hard drive duo look like a single storage pool to host systems. Solid state drives (SSD) are very expensive compared to hard disk drives (HDD) and, so far, only Seagate has tried building an …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 14:57

  • Who will rid me of these obsolete PCs?

    Reuse it or lose it

    I never would have believed that getting rid of one’s old computer gear could be the harder side of upgrades – until early last year when I bought a set of Wyse thin clients to replace an aging and mismatched desktop fleet. I briefly toyed with the idea of making some form of Franken-Beowulf-cluster out of the 40 or so working …

    Servers 4 Jan 2011, 15:00

  • Dell engulfs security provider to Fortune 500

    Channel biggening foreseen

    Dell has bought SecureWorks which provides a variety of security and compliance services to customers including 85 of the Fortune 500 companies and many banks and financial institutions. The company offers threat assessment and managed security for large and medium-sized companies. SecureWorks, started in 1999, employs 700 …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 15:22

  • Hitachi GST brings out massive DVR units

    Living room enormity on the way

    Hitachi GST has introduced new drives for digital video recorders, revving its existing 3.5-inch product with doubled capacity and giving us a 50 per cent capacity increase on the 2.5-inch product. With the new 3.5-inch drive, DVRs can hold twice as many movies and TV programmes as before. The 3.5-inch 5K2000 hard disk drive …

    Storage 4 Jan 2011, 15:45

  • HP Beats up its PC range

    Dr Dre and Burberry?

    HP has refreshed its consumer notebook and desktop PC line-up for the New Year. Frequent travellers may like the HP Pavilion dm1 which is less than an inch thick and has an 11.6in HD display. The dm1 has up to an 11-hour battery life, a 750GB HDD and makes use of HP's CoolSense Technology - hardware that automatically …

    Hardware 4 Jan 2011, 16:13

  • Win 7 Mobile app marketplace DRM cracked

    White hat peels off flimsy protection in explicit vid

    Security flaws in the newly-established Windows Phone 7 marketplace have led to the creation of a mechanism to strip away copy-sharing (DRM) controls. Weaknesses in Microsoft's DRM for Windows Phone 7 allowed a white-hat hacker to create a proof-of-concept demo illustrating how it was possible to take an application from the …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 16:46

  • Enraged wives hand Pakistani polygamist vicious shoeing

    Double trouble and strife over alleged fifth wedding

    A Pakistani polygamist copped a righteous shoeing from two of his three known wives, who alleged that he'd already had a clandestine fourth other half and was planning to tie the knot for a fifth time. Mian Ishaq of Gujranwala, Punjab province, was at a friend's wedding reception with wife number three, Fauzia, when estranged …

    Bootnotes 4 Jan 2011, 16:48

  • DRAM prices plunging into 2011

    Thanks for the memory

    If you are out shopping for a server or a PC, you're going to be able to buy a box with considerably more memory than you could a year ago. With DRAM prices expected to fall through 2011, the longer you wait to buy, the more memory you are going to get for the money. According to chip market watcher iSuppli, as memory makers …

    The Channel 4 Jan 2011, 16:51

  • Opera in touchable tablet browser peep show

    Norwegians do Android fondle slabs

    Opera has unveiled a touchable incarnation of its web browser designed specifically for tablets and netbooks. On Tuesday, the Norwegian browser maker released a short video showcasing the browser, and it plans to provide further details this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. At this point, details are …

    Tablets 4 Jan 2011, 17:41

  • PHP apps plagued by Mark of the Beast bug

    Death by decimal places

    Web developers are in a lather following the discovery of a bug in the PHP programming language that causes computers to freeze when they process certain numerical values with large numbers of decimal places. The error in the way floating-point and double-precision numbers are handled sends 32-bit systems running Linux, Windows …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 19:08

  • Amazon preps Kindleware for Android, Windows tablets

    Beyond the iPad

    Amazon is prepping Kindleware for Android and Windows tablets. On Tuesday, the etailer announced that its tailoring free Kindle apps for new Android- and Windows-based tablets "coming in 2011." The apps will allow tablet users to download and read ebooks from Amazon's Kindle bookstore – even if they don't own a physical Kindle …

    Tablets 4 Jan 2011, 19:27

  • Microsoft powers up 'wallless' data center

    Azure behemoth turns outside in

    Microsoft will soon fire up a state-of-the art data center in its home state of Washington, after receiving a tax break from local politicos. The company has promised to open what it calls one of its "most innovative new data centers" in Quincy, Washington early this year. The center is expected to host services such as …

    Servers 4 Jan 2011, 20:22

  • Ubisoft eases PC DRM (a little)

    Gamers unstuck from web restriction

    DRM checks on Ubisoft Games appear to have changed - gamers can now play titles like Assassins Creed 2 without a constant internet connection. The DRM system, launched with Settlers 7 in March last year, required players to be netted-up the entire time in order to play. The changes mean these games no longer require a …

    Games 4 Jan 2011, 21:05

  • Microsoft confirms code execution bug in Windows

    0days R Us

    Microsoft has confirmed reports that several versions of Windows are vulnerable to exploits that allow remote attackers to take full control of users' computers using booby-trapped emails and websites. In an advisory issued Tuesday, Microsoft said it was investigating “new public reports” of vulnerability in the XP, Server 2003 …

    Security 4 Jan 2011, 21:28

  • Reseller's VAR two-step lands Oz upside

    Avnet swaps out ProSys for itX

    Master reseller Avnet has sold an American value-added reseller it landed through last summer's acquisition of Bell Microproducts while snapping up another to deliver greater leverage in the Australian IT market. On Monday, Avnet acquired itX Group Limited, a reseller with a long history in Australian IT that got its start as …

    The Channel 4 Jan 2011, 22:27

  • Ex-IBM channel marketeers turn hired guns

    Have laptop, will travel

    Some high-level ex-IBMers have ganged up to create a virtual channel marketing department that IT vendors can hire to either augment or replace their own marketing efforts. The company they've created is called CTX Resources, and it's based in Westport, Connecticut, which is about 25 miles from IBM HQ in Armonk, New York. CTX …

    The Channel 4 Jan 2011, 23:45