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14th January 2011 Archive

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  • Gamers raid medical server to host Call of Duty

    230,000 patient records exposed

    A server storing sensitive patient information for more than 230,000 people was breached by unknown hackers so they could use its resources to host the wildly popular Call of Duty: Black Ops computer game. New Hampshire-based Seacoast Radiology warned patients on Tuesday that the hacked server stored their names, social …

    ID 14 Jan 00:30

  • Intel: Our server growth never stops

    Every quarter is fourth quarter

    If you are expecting a dip in server spending in 2011, then you must not be running Intel. In a conference call with Wall Street analysts going over the chip maker's fourth quarter of 2010 financial results, Paul Otellini, the company's president and chief executive officer, was asked if the server business would return to the …

    Financial News 14 Jan 00:35

  • Man nabbed nude pics from women's email accounts

    'Sextortion' run amok

    A California man on Thursday admitted breaking into the Facebook and email accounts of hundreds of women and stealing nude and semi-nude pictures of them. George Samuel Bronk, 23, of Citrus Heights, pleaded guilty to seven felony charges, including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography. He …

    Crime 14 Jan 00:37

  • Linux ecosystem spins around Red Hat

    Open...and Shut Silly name, serious company

    By Silicon Valley standards, Red Hat is a loser. It doesn't have an app store (though it once tried to create one). Its chief executive isn't a fresh-faced kid (though Jim Whitehurst doesn't look much older than 20). And its headquarters isn't in San Francisco or Silicon Valley, but rather in the comparative backwoods of North …

    Developer 14 Jan 02:01

  • Otellini yawns at Windows on ARM

    Chipzilla stays on message

    After Microsoft announced that the next release of its Windows operating system would run on ARM chips, Chipzilla headman Paul Otellini and his staff must have received a memo from Intel Thought Central. That missive would have said something along the lines of: It's not news. We welcome it. We will grind the bones of our …

    PCs & Chips 14 Jan 02:09

  • Interview: Jailbroken iPhones a vector rather than a vulnerability

    With freedom comes responsibility

    Earlier this week, Sense of Security hit the headlines advising against the careless use of jailbroken iPhones in corporate environments. The Register speaks to the company’s security consultant Kaan Kivilcim, who presented his findings at the ASIA conference in December, about what the company found. El Reg:In your testing, …

    Enterprise Security 14 Jan 03:10

  • Synology USB Station 2

    Review Neat networker for external drives and printers

    Network storage is a ‘good thing’ in the same way as a Big Top; great as long as you don’t have to set it up. Selling Nas boxes to consumers needs the hassle taken out of the installation – and what if you already have a drive you’re not using? Synology’s USB 2 Station aims to ease both problems. Making connections: Synology' …

    reghardware 14 Jan 07:00

  • Sainsbury's is abandoning tape

    Shoden shoes-in Data Domain

    UK retailing giant and mainframe user Sainsbury's is migrating away from tape to Shoden-supplied Data Domain disk backup systems. It has rejected a move to Oracle's current StreamLine automated tape library and is moving to disk instead. Shoden is the UK division of a South African systems integrator which resells Hitachi …

    Storage 14 Jan 09:11

  • What you think about SaaS

    Hosted apps Reg Readers wax lyrical

    Throughout this workshop, we have been looking at the factors that affect the acceptance of SaaS. Ultimately what it boils down to is trust, and when we look at what it is that creates trust, you tell us that the most important factors are: A demonstrable track record on privacy and security The quality of service and …

    Hosted Apps 14 Jan 09:13

  • OFT restricts use of insurance tool

    Credit reference tool could lead to illegal price 'co-ordination'

    Competition watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has reached agreement for limiting the use of a tool produced by credit reference company Experian over fears that it could lead to illegal price co-ordination. Seven insurers and two IT companies have agreed to limit the information they share and the OFT has warned that …

    Applications 14 Jan 09:53

  • Renault wants full spy probe

    Electric car shock as 3 execs suspended

    French carmaker Renault has filed a criminal complaint with the Paris prosecutor to investigate claims of industrial espionage in its electric car division. Three executives have been suspended while the allegations are investigated. Renault now wants French police to start digging too. The complaint is made against "persons …

    Science 14 Jan 10:00

  • Mitsubishi commuter e-car goes on sale

    G-Whiz killer?

    Mitsubishi's e-car, the i-MiEV, formally goes on sale in the UK today. You can read Reg Hardware's review of the electric auto, which we found to be genuinely fun to drive, here. The car maker has actually been shipping vehicles to Europe since October 2010, with some 2500 of them arriving on the continent. Many are i-MiEVs …

    reghardware 14 Jan 10:13

  • Facebook facing fall-down issues

    Down or out?

    Facebook is having a bit of a wobbly morning - the site is unavailable for many, and working very, very slowly for others. Emails to the Reg suggest it has been having problems for at least three hours. It is not clear if there is a security problem or something has gone wrong with the site's ever-growing infrastructure. …

    Music and Media 14 Jan 10:19

  • Engineers want £20bn for rubbish idea

    Volvo drivers, taxes and recycling

    In a utopian report, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) says the UK needs £20bn additional spending on recycling infrastructure over the next decade. The recommendation is made in a report today that proposes "unlocking value locked up in the UK's current waste" – which sounds great – but the report fails to tell us …

    Environment 14 Jan 10:24

  • HP cans EVA clustering

    From birth to death in six months

    HP killed EVA clustering sales at the end of 2010, meaning that scale-out virtualised storage capacity across EVA arrays and thin provisioning are no longer available. 3PAR products fill the gap. LSI Corporation is closing its Storage Virtualisation Manager (SVM) product line down. HP EVA clustering, launched a little over six …

    Storage 14 Jan 10:37

  • RIM, Moto tablet ship total to hit 2m in Q1

    Apple's numbers eagerly awaited

    RIM will be shipping more than a million BlackBerry PlayBook tablets during the firs three months of 2011 as the battle to beat Apple's iPad - or at least grab a chunk of the emerging media slate maket - begins in earnest. Motorola, meanwhile, will be taking receipt of up to 800,000 Xoom tablets, moles from Taiwan's contract …

    reghardware 14 Jan 10:38

  • Wikileaks finally chucks Brad Manning spare change

    Small beans for alleged source

    With Julian Assange settling into his new life as a country squire at Ellingham Hall, Wikileaks has belatedly offered to help its alleged source. Wikileaks has donated $15,000 to the Bradley Manning Support Network. Manning has been imprisoned in solitary confinement since July, charged with transferring classified data and …

    Government 14 Jan 10:51

  • Chinese crack down on 'money-sucker' Androids

    Stealthy stealing from customers to be stamped on

    The Chinese government is to crack down on "money sucking" mobiles: Android-based handsets that subsidise themselves by stealing from the customer's account. The crackdown aims to involve network operators, target retailers and ensure that selling handsets featuring pre-installed Trojans is explicitly illegal, according to the …

    Crime 14 Jan 11:00

  • No need for speed, says Oz communications shadow

    Blasted for blasting A$43bn broadband plan - is he right?

    It's been a bad week for Australia’s Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has taken quite a drubbing across the blogosphere after suggesting that Australia's cities did not need home connection speeds of up to one terabyte per second. According to the Delimiter’s Renai LeMay, the internet was awash with insult …

    Telecoms 14 Jan 11:23

  • EU study frowns over data breach notification rules

    Cyber-security agency worries

    A new EU study has identified risk prioritisation, enforcement and resources as key issues in applying data breach notification rules. ENISA, the EU’s cyber-security agency, launched its investigation on data breach notification rules against a backdrop of steadily rising incident of personal information disclosure breaches. …

    Enterprise Security 14 Jan 11:56

  • Flashy fists fly as OCZ and DDRdrive row over SSD performance

    CTO says rival's specs are 'knowingly disingenuous'

    Two solid state disk SSD suppliers are arguing about NAND flash performance drop-off. OCZ supplies NAND flash solid state drives (SSDs) and regularly announces high-performance products. DDRdrive has recently exited stealth mode and makes the X1 hybrid DRAM/NAND SSD. It criticises OCZ and other flash suppliers for products …

    Storage 14 Jan 12:01

  • Special Ops satellite-bitchslapping hydrogen strato cruiser flies

    Supertrooper 'lectroplane to stay up a week at a time

    A radical new US military drone aircraft, intended to cruise high in the stratosphere on days-long missions in which it would take on many tasks currently requiring satellites, has made its first flight powered by hydrogen. Throw away that clunky satellite dish. And the satellite The Global Observer from famous aerial …

    Physics 14 Jan 12:46

  • US government could challenge Google's ITA travel plans

    Awaits take off

    Google’s proposed $700m acquisition of travel search outfit ITA Software is continuing to be probed by the US government, which could lead to the Department of Justice blocking the deal. According to Bloomberg, which cites people familiar with the situation, regulators are mulling over bringing a possible lawsuit against …

    Applications 14 Jan 12:47

  • Samsung EX1 compact camera

    Review Robust, retro, low light performer

    While Samsung’s NX100 APS-C sensor camera is making life difficult for those deciding on compact EVIL shooter, the company’s considerably cheaper EX1 is beginning to look like a bargain these days. Shop around and you can pick it up for under £300. The EX1 isn't an interchangeable lens model but its 24mm f1.8, 3x zoom is …

    reghardware 14 Jan 13:00

  • Harder to read = easier to recall

    If you want to remember this, poke yourself in the eye before reading

    Fancy fonts might be harder to read, but the messages they convey are easier to recall, according to boffins at Princeton and Indiana Universities. The researchers got 28 subjects to read a load of made-up facts to learn in 90 seconds, with a third getting the details in black Arial while the rest got greyed out (60 per cent) …

    Biology 14 Jan 13:04

  • Sharp submits skinny sound solution

    Raises the bar

    Sharp has upped the volume on laptops this month with the launch of an extension speaker system, the Mini Sound Bar. Powered by USB, the Sharp CP-USB50 Mini Sound Bar is a 2.1 channel system that offers plug and play extension for most computers. Compatible with Win 2k onwards and Mac OS X 9 or beyond, the bar has a built in …

    reghardware 14 Jan 13:24

  • Pioneer plugs ears with powerful headphones

    Say what?

    Sound specialist Pioneer has released a set of noise cancelling headphones that apparently reduce ambient racket up to 90 per cent. The SE-NC31C are in-ear headphones that have 14.2mm drivers with a response of 5-16,000Hz. They offer 120 hours of continuous noise-cancelling playback, Pioneer claimed, but can switch over to …

    reghardware 14 Jan 13:27

  • Samsung Froyo phone surfaces

    Not as small as conclusion-leapers think?

    Pictures of an upcoming Samsung Android 2.2-based smartphone, the S5830, have got numerous bloggers drooling over the notion of a "mini" version of the Galaxy S. We're not convinced. Firstly, the Galaxy S' model number is I9000, not S-something, so we'd expect a smaller version of that phone to be the I-something. Second, the …

    reghardware 14 Jan 14:21

  • $1,000 reward offered for stolen cancer research laptop

    Thieves make off with boffin's work on prostate cancer

    Medical researchers in Oklahoma are offering a no-questions-asked $1,000 reward for the return of a stolen laptop that contains years of research on prostate cancer. Sook Shin lost the 13-inch white MacBook last Sunday after thieves smashed the window of the car she shares with husband, Ralf Jankecht, and made off with the …

    Crime 14 Jan 14:28

  • Sainsbury's techie jailed for loyalty card scam

    He swiped Nectar card points and funnelled theoretical cash to fake accounts

    An IT manager at Sainsbury's has been jailed for fraud offences connected to the supermarket's Nectar loyalty card scheme. James Stevenson, 45, from Muswell Hill, London, transferred millions of Nectar loyalty points to accounts which he controlled. Stevenson ran the scheme for years and was caught with points with a …

    Crime 14 Jan 14:48

  • LG dual-core smartphone to hit UK in March

    Retailers name the date

    LG's Optimus 2x Android smartphone - a handset equipped with Nvidia's 1GHz dual-core Tegra processor - will be out in the UK in March. So says online retailer Expansys.com, which is quoting 21 March as the day the "superphone" will become available. It wants £500 for the unlocked smartphone that comes with a 4in display, 8Mp …

    reghardware 14 Jan 14:58

  • California's green-leccy price system will stifle plug-in cars

    Only $200/barrel oil can make Chevy Volt worth having

    California is generally thought to be perhaps the best place in the world for eco-friendly cars. The populous, wealthy, heavily motorised state has traditionally encouraged the development of low-pollution, energy-saving cars, and such vehicles are more commonly found there than anywhere else. Unfortunately, according to an …

    Environment 14 Jan 15:21

  • Ace Reg reporter in career suicide shock

    'Quick, shred my expenses file!'

    After almost five years, I'm rejoining the massed ranks of the Reg readership. Assuming my crippling hangover has subsided by then, I'll be reading from Monday in my new post as technology correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. It's been an absolute pleasure to serve this unique and esteemed organ, which has some of the most …

    Bootnotes 14 Jan 15:23

  • Microsoft sends Windows 7 SP1 to OEMs

    Start your engines

    Russian Microsoft employees have pushed the button on Windows 7 service pack 1, by revealing that it is winging its way to computer manufacturers. As spotted by WinRumours, the company's Rusky Windows virtualisation bods confirmed that version 7601.17514.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850 is the final build and it will be in the laps of …

    Operating Systems 14 Jan 16:19

  • Games sales slip in 2010

    Downturn Abbey

    The gaming world has produced smaller figures this year and while strenuous Kinect, Move and Wii exercise could potentially shed a few stone, we're actually talking sales numbers here. According to games tracker NPD, the US saw almost a six per cent drop in physical game purchases last year. This includes portable, console and …

    reghardware 14 Jan 16:28

  • LightSquared faces regulator glare

    While investors go dark

    LightSquared is in a tight spot, with investors getting cold feet and regulators demanding assurance on how far the company intends to bend the rules. LightSquared is the pipe dream of Harbinger Capital Partners founder Phil Falcone, and is still funded by Harbinger. The plan is to use radio spectrum reserved for satellite …

    Mobile 14 Jan 16:40

  • Google Apps contracts promise no 'scheduled downtime'

    '46 times more alive than Microsoft Exchange'

    Google has updated the contracts for its Google Apps suite so that they no longer make allowances for scheduled maintenance, and that any downtime - no matter how small - will be counted and applied to the customer's agreement. Mountain View announced the change to its Google Apps service level aggreements (SLAs) with a Friday …

    Software 14 Jan 17:00

  • Watson beats humans in Jeopardy! dry run

    'They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence'

    If you were betting on humanity in the upcoming grand challenge clash between humanity and IBM's Watson question-answer (QA) supercomputer, you might want to start reconsidering your wager. As El Reg previously reported, IBM's Watson QA box took the same Jeopardy! entrance exam a month ago and qualified to take on past …

    HPC 14 Jan 17:30

  • No court order against PlayStation hackers for now

    No personal jurisdiction

    A San Francisco federal judge declined to order New Jersey-based hacker Geohot to turn over the technology he used to root the PlayStation 3, saying she doubted Geohot was subject to her court's authority. The move by US District Judge Susan Illston on Friday was a blow to Sony, which argued that the 21-year-old hacker, whose …

    Security 14 Jan 20:22

  • Will Windows on ARM sink Windows Phone 7?

    Analysis Peaceful coexistence v tribal warfare

    Microsoft insists that its upcoming ARM-friendly version of Windows is no threat to its existing smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7. Windows for ARM is strictly for "tablets on up," Redmond says. But Intel CEO Paul Otellini sees Microsoft's mobile OS future quite differently. The tablets-on-up "Windows 8" will run on x86 chips as …

    Mobile 14 Jan 23:25