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10th January 2011 Archive

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  • CES wrap: let the battle of the tablets commence

    CES 2011 Post-netbook era looking suspiciously like pre-netbook age

    Consumers themselves may not yet be willing to commit themselves en masse to the media tablet and set aside the netbook, but manufacturers certainly appear ready to do so. This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas, was the launching point for uncounted Android tablets. But while Acer launched a new …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 07:00

  • Final call for Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010

    Vote now - and see if you'll win an Xbox

    Back in November we asked you to make your suggestions for the products most worthy of a Reg Hardware Readers Award. We got hundreds of nominations from which we drew up shortlists of the most popular - and least popular in the case of the Rusty Dodo Award - gadgets released in 2010. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's your …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 08:00

  • EMC employee filched $1m worth of hardware

    Kit for cash - one piece at a time

    An EMC employee stole around a million dollars' worth of kit from the company over almost ten years. Testing employee Kevin Kelly stole small products from an EMC Apex facility in North Carolina, walking them out of the door in a gym or duffel bag. He sold them over the internet - a process known as e-fencing - to BL Trading …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 09:54

  • Open source campaigners urge investigation of Novell patent sale

    OS advocates concerned about possible cartel of software giants

    Open source software advocates have asked a German competition law regulator to investigate the purchase of patents owned by Novell by a consortium led by Microsoft and including Apple, Oracle and EMC. US-based open source advocacy body the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has said that it was informed that the German Federal …

    Operating Systems 10 Jan 2011, 10:13

  • Android's Gingerbread finagled onto iPhone

    Happy hack

    Time-rich hackers have got Android 2.3, Gingerbread booting on an iPhone 3G, for the fanboy of divided loyalties who must have the latest of everything. Honeycomb isn't completely functional yet, but being based on the iDroid project it offers dual-boot capability for those who want to keep iOS around for the more mundane …

    Mobile 10 Jan 2011, 10:37

  • Facebook worm spread via photo album chat lure

    Unhappy snaps

    A new worm that spreads using a photo album chat message lure began proliferating across Facebook over the weekend. The photo lure is used to hoodwink potential users into downloading a malicious file, which appears in the guise of a photo viewing application. Victims are prompted to click a "View Photo" button. Gullible …

    Malware 10 Jan 2011, 11:12

  • Seagate snubbed $7.5bn bid

    Pah! We can do better than that

    Seagate turned down a bid of $7.5bn when it was shopping itself around private equity buyers last year, it has emerged. This is according to Bloomberg, which wrote about the deal on Saturday. Apparently Seagate was offered $7.5bn by TGP Capital. It is currently capitalised at $6.82bn and was in that rough area in November last …

    Storage 10 Jan 2011, 11:22

  • The Girl with the NSObject Class Reference tattoo

    Stob Verity tackles Swedish noir

    What better occupation, at this time of year, than to polish up one's IT skills with some background reading? What have the great programming publishers got lined up for our delectation in 2011? Alas, as far as this reviewer is concerned, these rhetorical questions must remain unanswered. A certain Amazon parcel, containing …

    Verity Stob 10 Jan 2011, 11:30

  • LG Optimus One P500 budget Android smartphone

    Review Froyo on the cheap

    Time was when smartphones were always high-end handsets. But as economies of scale help bring prices down, Android’s open option has made it appealing to a wide variety of manufacturers and it’s adding smartphone goodies to some very modestly priced handsets. LG's Optimus One: Android 2.2 on the cheap Case in point: LG's …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 12:00

  • What's in your datacentre?

    It's not a giant central heating system

    At the fifty-thousand foot level, a datacentre is nothing more than a box in which IT assets are stored. While it gets more complicated, if you want a quick overview of what's in a datacentre, this is the place to look. Broadly speaking, the job of the IT equipment in a datacentre is to accept incoming data, such as a request …

    Data Centre 10 Jan 2011, 12:01

  • Facebook boobs over breastfeeding page... again

    Leaky breasted mums have their 'obscene' accounts deleted

    Facebook had one of its nipple-related related brainstorms last week, banning, unbanning, then re-banning breastfeeding support group, The Leaky Boob. The Leaky Boob group allows almost 11,000 mothers to share their experiences on breastfeeding – as well as providing casual visitors with a treasure trove of advice and tips. …

    Music and Media 10 Jan 2011, 12:02

  • Apple shareholders call for transparent CEO 'succession plans'

    Jittery board members warn against blabbing Cupertino's secrets

    Apple is advising its shareholders to vote against a proposal to reveal a “succession-planning policy” for the company’s CEO. Meanwhile, the firm’s current boss Steve Jobs, who owns 5.5m shares in the iPhone maker, saw $1 slipped into his pay packet in 2010. That figure matches the annual reward he has received since 1997 for …

    Financial News 10 Jan 2011, 12:07

  • Indonesia puts RIM on two-week notice

    Demands the possible, and the impossible

    Indonesian politicians are calling for RIM to provide lawful intercept and porno blocking, within two weeks, or face losing contact with the 1.5 million BlackBerry users in the country. RIM has leapt to say that it would be delighted to do the latter, in the hope that its commitment will distract attention from the former …

    Mobile 10 Jan 2011, 12:14

  • Hackers mock North Korea heir-apparent birthday boy

    Kim minor gets roasted

    Hackers compromised North Korean media profiles on Saturday to mock the country's heir apparent, Kim Jong Un, on his birthday. North Korea's YouTube channel was commandeered to post satirical footage depicting a caricature of Kim Jong Un at the wheel of a luxury sports car and out of control, mowing down women and children at …

    Enterprise Security 10 Jan 2011, 12:17

  • George Nazi assumes Alcatel 'senior execution role'

    A headline worth saluting

    Our piece last week on the strange case of the Finnish mutt and his piss-taking Nazi salute contained the following Bootnote - a desperate attempt to justify a piece of Friday frivolity: Those seeking some IT angle on this story may care to note that Alcatel-Lucent has just hired a "quality assurance and customer care" …

    Bootnotes 10 Jan 2011, 12:30

  • Computacenter weds Brian McBride

    So many tech companies, so little time

    Computacenter has hired channel veteran Brian McBride as the giant IT reseller's new senior independent director. He most recently worked at Amazon for five years, where he was vice president and managing director at the online retailer's UK wing. McBride has also been handed chairmanship of the Remuneration Committee at …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 12:50

  • Mum arrested for seducing teen on Xbox Live

    Cuffed for sex with 13-year-old, and he may not be the only one

    A California mother of three was cuffed last Friday for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old boy she met in an Xbox Live chat room. Rachel Ann Hicks, 36, of Lake Forest, allegedly posed as a 23-year-old woman in order to chat up the Maryland teen online, and the relationship "progressed to phone calls, texts and emails that …

    Policing 10 Jan 2011, 13:38

  • Police reject Labour MP's call for Bristol-wide DNA test

    'Not something we're considering'

    Bristol police have pooh-poohed a Labour MP's call for all men living in Bristol to provide DNA samples in the hunt for the killer of Jo Yeates. Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East and Shadow Junior Minister for the Treasury, was reported in yesterday’s Sunday Express as calling for Bristolians to provide their DNA to …

    Policing 10 Jan 2011, 14:30

  • Console games 'hack' reseller gets community service order

    Mods and rockers

    A Leicestershire-based computer reseller who modified video games consoles to run pirated games has been sentenced to a lengthy spell of community service. Thomas Norwood, 40, a director of Modchip Fitters, pleaded guilty to importation and sale of electronic cards that circumvented anti-piracy controls on Nintendo Wiis, …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 14:40

  • EU in Chinese garlic-crushing operation

    Clampdown on duty-dodging 'fresh onions'

    The EU's European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is applauding the success of an anti-smuggling operation which saw 144 tonnes of fresh Chinese garlic seized in Poland. The cunning oriental plan to flood Poland with Allium sativum involved labelling the produce as "fresh onions", which attract a 9.6 per cent ad valorem import duty …

    Bootnotes 10 Jan 2011, 14:41

  • Nintendo disappoints over 3DS battery life

    Launch line-up

    Nintendo has revealed the Japanese launch date for its 3DS gaming console, as well as system specifications, which has prompted disappointment over battery life. Sales for the stereoscopic console will start on February 26 for Y25,000 (£190) a pop in Japan, with the US and Europe set to follow in March. Nintendo expects to …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 14:52

  • Apple 'cans restocking fees'

    Consumer-friendly move

    Apple is to drop re-stocking fees on products returned to its US retail stores, according to reports. Currently the company imposes a 10 per cent re-stocking fee on non-defective products returned by customers. Restocking fees are a common practice among US manufacturers and retailers, but unpopular with American consumers. …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 15:40

  • T-Mobile imposes swingeing cuts on fair use data limits

    Bait and switch?

    T-Mobile UK is cutting "fair use" data limits on Feb 1 from up to 3GB to 500MB and has sparked furious complaints from customers, who were told by text today of the move. T-Mobile customers on "unlimited" Android monthly data contracts who contacted The Reg were particularly aggrieved. Most were aware that the fair use policy …

    reghardware 10 Jan 2011, 15:55

  • EU wants to erect opt-in hurdle for creators

    Ripping up Berne ... and creative rights

    A potentially incendiary EU report released today recommends making changes to the Berne Convention – and creating several new layers of bureaucracy in order to deal with the digitisation of cultural stuff. Creators would have to "opt-in" to a new database before getting their rights, which have historically been guaranteed by …

    Music and Media 10 Jan 2011, 16:25

  • Anonymous activists to hit the streets

    Scientology and Assange to get masked visitation

    Protestors associated with the online activism group Anonymous will hit the streets of London twice this week, in criticism of Scientology and in support of Julian Assange. Buoyed by its current high profile, a result of interest in its recent DDoS attacks on Visa, Mastercard and Amazon, the group has issued a call for global …

    Government 10 Jan 2011, 16:58

  • Render farming is hot!

    Server upgrade makes data centre unfit for purpose

    I recently revisited my all time favourite consulting experience; the design and construction of a mid-sized render farm. I had never done anything quite like it before; it took a full summer’s worth of research and two months to fully install and test the final design. The render farm consisted of 400 render nodes, a rack’s …

    Sysadmin blog 10 Jan 2011, 17:00

  • Dual flash and disk desktops

    Lenovo's RapidDrive technology

    Desktop users want faster boot and app load times just as much as notebook users and dual flash and hard disk drive systems could provide both. Intel and Lenovo announced ThinkPad notebooks at CES last week, featuring both solid state drives (SSD) and hard drives (HDD) with 40GB or 80GB of Intel 310 flash used for storing the …

    Blocks and Files 10 Jan 2011, 17:22

  • Cisco comes out of switch closet with Catalyst

    Switches, switches everywhere

    Probably the only time when Cisco Systems doesn't see a switch as being the solution to a problem is when it thinks a router will do the trick. Or maybe a server. With the proliferation of network-connected devices that are powered by switches through LAN cables, companies to move switches closer to the devices and get them …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 18:10

  • Microsoft bigs up future edition of its ERP software

    Dynamics AX 6 ready to grind

    Microsoft plans to release a new version of its Dynamics AX ERP software in the third quarter of this year. The vendor said today that "AX 6" - as it's been dubbed - would come loaded with a "unique model-driven, layered architecture" to speed up software development and cut back on coding. All of which is an effort to …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 18:22

  • Vodafone Aus web portal credentials escape, media panic

    The internet's not just Tweets, porn and lolcats? Who knew?

    Australian media has fallen into a bout of panic following the discovery that, in addition to cat pictures, newspaper paywall gateways, pornography and illegally-copied music and movies, the Internet is used as a business communications medium. The victim of this revelation is Vodafone, which uses a Web portal to provide …

    Mobile 10 Jan 2011, 20:00

  • Tech giants score record patent stash

    US patent count soars 31%

    The US Patent and Traedmark Office issued a record-breaking 219,614 utility patents last year, a 31 per cent increase over 2009. For years, there has been lots o' talk about patent reform, but most of the action in the intellectual property arena is on the filing and receiving of patents, not on exercising some self-restraint …

    Government 10 Jan 2011, 20:31

  • Microsoft server and tools chief heads for exit

    Not cloudy enough?

    Microsoft is losing the leader of its $15bn server and tools business unit, the operation charged with executing the company's cloud computing strategy. Server and tools chief Bob Muglia will leave Microsoft this summer after 23 years of service, company chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday. Microsoft's CEO had …

    Cloud Business 10 Jan 2011, 20:55

  • WikiLeaks lawyer dubs US subpoena on Twitter 'harassment'

    Microblog king battles secret demand for WikiLeaks info

    US prosecutor demands that Twitter hand over data about WikiLeaks and a raft of supporters amounts to harassment, a lawyer for the whistle-blower website says. The claim comes amid revelations of documents the US Department of Justice secretly filed in federal court seeking detailed information associated with the accounts of …

    ID 10 Jan 2011, 21:06

  • When one oligopoly screws another

    Understanding Australia's internet shopping tax row

    Australia’s retailers, led by high-profile Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey, have shot themselves in the foot with a campaign demanding that the government apply its 10 per cent Goods and Services Tax to all internet purchases, and not only those over $1,000. The retailers, concerned that sales in the Christmas period were …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 21:08

  • AMD CEO Dirk Meyer resigns

    CFO steps into breach

    Mere days after AMD's "Fusion era" began, the Dirk Meyer era ended. The company's president and CEO resigned Monday afternoon, effective immediately. "Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of Global Foundries, the …

    Financial News 10 Jan 2011, 22:39

  • Intel shells out $1.5bn for Nvidia tech

    Tag team against AMD?

    Intel and Nvidia are burying the hatchet, and it looks like it will be stuck in AMD's skull. And, perhaps equally importantly, Nvidia will be $1.5bn richer. With "eye candy" – snazzy media processing – being the most important aspect of personal computing these days, Intel can ill afford to be at war with graphics chip maker …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 23:00

  • Lawsuit says Oracle pilfered source code from competitor

    Tables turned on Ellison

    Oracle – which recently won $1.3 billion in court damages for the theft of its trade secrets by an SAP subsidiary – faces a $100 million lawsuit alleging it engaged in similar behavior. The complaint (PDF), filed in late December by Texas software company 2FA Technology, claims Oracle executives turned a blind eye when security …

    Channel Register 10 Jan 2011, 23:05