The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

1st March 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Jobs stand-in ranks iPhone over sex

    Breathing, water, food, handset with crap antenna

    Apple's acting headman Tim Cook told an investment analyst that the iPhone is more important than sex. Well, The Reg freely admits that we're exaggerating a bit – but not by much. Apple's COO and Jobsian stand-in Tim Cook said that he ranks the iPhone "just below food and water on Maslow's hierarchy of needs," according to a …

    Mobile 1 Mar 00:53

  • Morgan Stanley hit by same attackers that breached Google

    The 'real Aurora attacks (not the crap in the news)'

    Morgan Stanley was hit by a “very sensitive” breach to its network by the same attackers who penetrated computer systems maintained by Google and dozens of other companies, according to leaked emails reviewed by Bloomberg News. The emails came from California-based HBGary, which suffered a major compromise of its own at the …

    Enterprise Security 1 Mar 01:27

  • Retailer predicts death of Apple retail channel, eBay gets cozy with brands

    Au channels are 'Apple’s bitch', eBay users no longer need bargains

    Controversialist and online retailer Ruslan Kogan has caused a minor sensation by using a conference stage to say that successful bricks-and-mortar retailers are “Apple’s bitch”. The thrust of his argument – ignoring, by the way, that most bricks-and-mortar retail in Australia has nothing to do with the consumer electronics …

    Channel Register 1 Mar 02:14

  • Ex-MySQL boss plots Second Cloud Coming

    Open...and Shut Marten Mickos and Eucalyptus. Don't write 'em off

    It's always unwise to count out Marten Mickos. The former chief executive of MySQL scored big when Sun Microsystems bought the ever-rising open-source database star for a cool $1bn, and seemed destined to bring this same Midas touch to open-source cloud computing vendor Eucalyptus Systems, the company he currently runs. But in …

    Cloud 1 Mar 04:00

  • Woman sentenced for breaching former employer's PCs

    Pants-ate-my-hard-drive defense fails

    A California woman has been sentenced to 60 days home detention and a year of probation for breaching the mail system of a former employer and posting confidential company documents to public websites. Ming Shao, who was 44 years old according to court documents filed last week, pleaded guilty to one count of felony computer …

    Crime 1 Mar 05:00

  • Nuance Flext9

    Android App of the Week Just my type

    Once you have used a letter-trace keyboard like Swype or SlideIT, there really is no going back to one-letter-at-a-time typing. Sadly, Swype is only available fitted to certain phones at source but Nuance - of Dragon speech-to-text fame - has cooked up an equivalent that’s available to anyone with a handset running Android 2.1 …

    reghardware 1 Mar 07:00

  • Patent row gets Playstation 3s banned from Europe

    PS3s and Bravia TVs, get your stock in now

    The long-running patent dispute between LG and Sony over Blu-Ray technology just got serious - a European court has approved a ten day ban on imports of Playstation 3s into Europe. A court ruling in the Hague last week means Sony's game console and its Bravia TVs could disappear from the High Street in the next few weeks. …

    reghardware 1 Mar 09:05

  • Bad Appler pleads guilty

    Original sin, and wire fraud

    The Apple procurement manager accused of grabbing kickbacks from suppliers has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay back millions of dollars. Paul Devine pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, one of conspiracy and one of money laundering. Devine agreed to pay Apple $2.5m - the amount he received from arranging dodgy supplier …

    Crime 1 Mar 09:22

  • Google blames bug for Gmail deletions

    Offline backup used to restore nuked profiles

    Google has blamed problems with a storage software update for a glitch that deleted an estimated 40,000 Gmail accounts. The snafu meant that affected users lost access to their archive of emails, contacts and IM chats. Initially Google said the glitch might have affected 0.29 per cent of its user base but this figure has …

    Cloud 1 Mar 09:27

  • LaCie cues up Thunderbolt hard drive

    10Gb/s data transfers, anyone?

    It's easy to claim a world first, but unless you're actually shipping something, the claim is arguably worthless. Marks, then, to LaCie for not claiming to the only storage specialist to have a Thunderbolt-connected external hard drive in the works. It does have one: the LaCie Little Big Disk, but it won't go on sale until the …

    reghardware 1 Mar 10:01

  • ECJ gender ruling 'could throw insurance into turmoil'

    Equality law may present pickle for industry

    Insurance companies could have the methods they use to calculate premiums thrown into turmoil tomorrow when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules on whether or not they can discriminate between male and female customers. Tomorrow the Court will publish its ruling that could remove the exemption from equality laws that …

    Small Biz 1 Mar 10:02

  • Could Coraid be readying for takeoff?

    Comment Stirrings under the surface ...

    Coraid is that niche ATA over Ethernet (AOE) vendor that's always about to break out of its reservation but never has. That could be about to change if things we're hearing from resellers are true. We have heard about a European financial institution that compared a Coraid storage array against a Fibre Channel SAN and found …

    Channel Register 1 Mar 10:26

  • Somerset council looks for cuts in Southwest One

    Renegotiating contract for back office services

    Southwest One, a joint venture between IBM, Somerset, Taunton Deane BC and Avon and Somerset Constabulary, will be reviewed along with all of the county council's contracts in an effort to cut costs. A spokeswoman for Somerset said: "Somerset county council needs to make huge savings to its budget over the next three years. " …

    Government 1 Mar 10:27

  • Londoners warned of card skimming risk

    Tube and train stations awash with card cloners

    The Metropolitan Police is warning commuters to be extra careful when buying tickets at London train and tube stations because of an increase in card skimming. The "Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit", made up of Met and City of London officers and card industry experts, has seen an increase in card skimming devices on …

    Crime 1 Mar 10:28

  • Portsmouth redefines the Olympic-sized swimming pool

    Shaves two inches off accepted standard

    Portsmouth has delivered a serious blow to attempts to have the Olympic-sized swimming pool recognised as an official unit of measurement, by shaving two inches off the standard length. Despite efforts by we here at El Reg and, notably, the BBC, to promote the handy volume, Portsmouth Council has blown it big time by punting …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 10:30

  • Intel trying a flash cache again

    If at first you don't succeed

    Intel appears set to try flash caching on the motherboard again with its Z68 chipset. Robson motherboard flash caches, also known as Turbo Memory, failed because the delivered results were crap. Braidwood promised better results but where is it? There is only one mention revealed in a search of Intel's website and it is a …

    Storage 1 Mar 10:46

  • Apple to launch queue-jumping service for little people

    Genius waits for no one. NO ONE

    Apple is to launch a queue-jumping service for those who urgently need a genius and are prepared to pay to avoid the wait. For a token $500 a year Apple will enrol five users into its new "Joint Venture", providing telephone support and the aforementioned priority service, according to reports from both Boy Genius Report and …

    Small Biz 1 Mar 10:50

  • iPhone 'Death Grip' effect is real, plastic cases don't help

    UK boffinry suggests external antenna not clever

    The so-called 'death grip' effect, in which a user's hand touching a smartphone antenna degrades its radio connections - a major issue for the iPhone 4 with its external antennae - is real and is a serious problem, according to British boffins researching the matter. Furthermore they found that plastic insulation between hand …

    Mobile 1 Mar 11:26

  • The job of a server is...

    Workshop It's not all flashing lights

    At its most basic, the job of a server is to process incoming data and turn it into something more useful, thereby adding value. For example, a web server will accept a request for a web page when you click on a link, search for the page and, if found, bundle up the text and images, and squirt them back the to the requester. …

    Data Centre 1 Mar 11:43

  • Euro court slaps down insurers over gender risks

    No more lower premiums for Sheilas

    The European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers should not treat gender as a risk factor when assessing premiums, clearing the way for higher costs for women. And probably men. A Belgian consumer organisation had brought the case, which centred on exemptions from the EU's anti-discrimination directive that allowed …

    Financial News 1 Mar 11:45

  • Spammers exploit Internationalized Domain Names to punt penis pills

    Cyrillic dysfunction

    Spammers have begun taking advantage of Internationalized Domain Names as a home for penis pill portals and other spamvertised sites. Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) allow domain names to include Arabic, Chinese and Russian characters, among others, as well as Latin letters. The inclusion of non-Latin characters with …

    Spam 1 Mar 11:48

  • Lenovo eyes peeper-pursuing PC controller

    From mouse balls to eyeballs

    Do I spy with my little eye, something beginning with IT? Lenovo has redesigned the personal computer interfacing system and debuted the world's first laptop with integrated eye control. Yes, users can point, select and scroll, as well as zoom-in and browse webpages, simply by moving their eyeballs, apparently. The company …

    reghardware 1 Mar 11:49

  • Penthouse pokes punters in eye with 3D smut

    NSFW Mounting excitement at TV channel launch

    Veteran smutmonger Penthouse has announced the launch of a 3D TV service described as "the first Pan European 3D formatted adult channel". Penthouse 3D will be putting out porn as of today between 22:00 GMT and 04:00 GMT from "ASTRA 3B, 23, 5 Degrees East", although there's no word on which providers will be handling the …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 11:50

  • BlueArc barges into the black

    Makes first profit

    Hardware-accelerated and scale-out filer supplier BlueArc has made a profit for the first time in its history, on the back of record quarterly and full year revenues. The company recorded undisclosed but record revenues for its fourth quarter, which finished at the end of January, being 40 per cent higher than the year-ago …

    Storage 1 Mar 11:52

  • Dixons prices up Motorola Android 3.0 tablet

    Then un-prices it

    Dixons has removed pricing and pre-order information from the Motorola Xoom page on its PC World website. Earlier today, the retailer said on the page that it would charge £450 for the 10.1in Android tablet, and invited interested punters to "pre-order today". Then... Within hours, the offer had been withdrawn, and buyers …

    reghardware 1 Mar 12:11

  • Kinect connect rate outstrips Sony PS3 Move

    Analyst outs sell-through stats

    Microsoft shipped around 8m Kinect Xbox add-ons during 2010, trouncing its earlier forecast of 5m units. An impressive performance, perhaps, until you see the next number provided, like the above, by market watcher IHS iSuppli: those shipments led to over-the-counter sales of 6.36m Kinects. So, as of the start of January this …

    reghardware 1 Mar 12:34

  • China Unicom readies mobile OS

    Squaring up to Symbian, asking Apple outside

    China Unicom is planning to launch its own mobile OS, taking on Apple and everyone else in a market presently dominated by Symbian and Ovi. The new OS will be Linux- but not Android-based, and called "Wophone" as the Wall Street Journal reports. Wophone handsets will be manufactured by ZTE, Huawei, TCL, Samsung and Motorola, …

    Mobile 1 Mar 12:45

  • US trade rep bashes Baidu for 'deep linking' naughtiness

    The Pirate Bay also singled out on 'Notorious Markets' list

    The US government has labelled Baidu - which is China's biggest search engine - a "deep linking" hub spewing out location details about where pirated content is stored online. In a report issued yesterday, BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay was also added to a list of "Notorious Markets" by the US Trade Representative's …

    Government 1 Mar 12:47

  • Gov consults on new CCTV/ANPR Code of Conduct

    Proper tech standards unlikely to 'roll back state'

    The coalition government, as part of its plans to "roll back the over-intrusive powers of the State", has announced that it will remove supervision of CCTV from the remit of the Information Commissioner and establish a new Surveillance Camera Commissioner. The government also intends to publish a new code of conduct for use of …

    Government 1 Mar 12:51

  • Huawei-Symantec takes big step with Force10

    North America partnership

    Huawei-Symantec is now selling storage in North America in partnership with Force10 Networks. Huawei-Symantec (H-S) is a joint venture between data protection and information management software vendor Symantec and Chinese IT giant Huawei, which says it has over 1,000 customers in more than 40 countries. Huawei builds a line …

    Channel Register 1 Mar 13:00

  • Dell Inspiron Zino HD 410

    Review Diddy desktop with designs on your telly

    With decent media streamers available for under £150 and many TVs featuring built-in network capabilities, getting content on your telly through a fully-fledged mini desktop PC might seem like a rather expensive way to do things. Still, that hasn’t stopped Dell from refining its Zino mini PC series, with the Zino HD 410 being …

    reghardware 1 Mar 13:03

  • Council busts breast milk ice cream parlour

    Frozen jub juice seized for health testing

    A Covent Garden designer ice cream parlour has earned itself a bust from Westminster council for punting potentially life-threatening breast milk ice cream. Municipal operatives relieved Icecreamists of its Baby Gaga blend of jub juice, vanilla pods and lemon zest, the Evening Standard reports. Brian Connell, Westminster's …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 13:38

  • German 'minister for cut'n'paste' resigns over PhD plagiarism

    Baron von Googleberg ousted from defence ministry

    The German defence minister has been forced to resign after being dubbed "minister for cut-and-paste" and "Baron zu Googleberg" for plagiarism while completing his PhD thesis. Freiherr* Doktor Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a 39-year-old Bavarian aristocrat, resigned his ministerial post following a firestorm of press and public …

    Government 1 Mar 13:41

  • Why do we need SANs?

    Comment Virtualised servers and DAS... ist gut

    Why do we need SANs any more when many virtualised app and storage controller servers and virtualised storage can co-exist in a single set of racks? Storage area networks (SANs) came into being so that many separate physical servers could each access a central storage facility at block level. They each saw their own LUN ( …

    Storage 1 Mar 14:23

  • HBGary chief exec resigns over Anon hack

    Barr falls on sword

    HBGary Federal chief exec Aaron Barr has resigned in a bid to allow the firm to draw a line under the continuing revelations from the Anonymous hack attack. Barr was the prime mover in plans to out senior members of Anonymous at the B-Sides security conference last month. But hunter became hunted after the more skilled members …

    Crime 1 Mar 14:26

  • SeaMicro: Intel proxy shows server moxie

    ARM wrestling

    SeaMicro last week announced its newest ultra-dense, ultra-low power Atom-based server solution. Our pal TPM gives it full coverage in this Reg article, but here’s the basic story. SeaMicro's first system, the SM10000, crammed eight Atom single-core processors and 16GB of memory onto a 5” x 11” system board and combined 64 of …

    HPC Blog 1 Mar 14:27

  • Surrey nudists tossed out into the cold after lease expires

    110 naturists look for friendly farmer

    A group of Surrey naturists is looking for an accommodating farmer, after their landlord refused to renew the lease on their old site. The Surrey Downs Sun Club leased their site from a holiday and residential company, which has decided to expand its own facilities at the Farley Green site, the Surrey Advertiser reports. The …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 14:28

  • Gamers raise millions for charity

    Play with yourself for others' benefit

    It's all about charitable gaming today. Not only are millions of kids having a bash at a maths game to raise money for Unicef, but it has been revealed how many greenbacks a pay-what-you-like software bundle made, of which a third was donated to charity. Today is World Maths Day, so as we speak, over five million children are …

    reghardware 1 Mar 14:46

  • HP gives 3PAR a filer head

    File access layered on 3PAR block arrays

    HP has layered its Ibrix-based X9300 scale-out file storage system on top of the 3PAR arrays giving customers file storage protocol access to the 3PAR T- and F-Series arrays and their thin provisioning, autonomic management and multi-tenant facilities. 3PAR did have a NAS head facility at one time, based on an Exanet offering …

    Cloud 1 Mar 15:10

  • Discovery team grapples ISS module

    Robotic arm shifts orbiting outpost extension

    Discovery STS-133 mission specialists Mike Barratt and Nicole Stott are in the process of using the International Space Station's robotic arm to manoevre the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) from the shuttle's payload bay towards its final home on the orbiting outpost's Unity node. By this evening, the orbiting outpost will …

    Space 1 Mar 15:13

  • Ex-PM blocked Steve Jobs knighthood

    Lord Jobby, a veray parfit, gentil knight

    A senior ex-MP claims Gordon Brown used his position as prime minister to block the offer of a knighthood for Apple supremo Steve Jobs. The startling claim, made in the Telegraph, was that Brown was still bitter because Stevey previously turned down an invitation to speak to the Labour Party conference. The anonymous senior …

    Government 1 Mar 15:14

  • NSPCC blurs lines as vetting debate kicks off

    Confusion reigns

    As debate on the future of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) gets under way, the NSPCC is demanding the right for authorities to carry on hiring and firing on the basis of uncorroborated "soft information" about employees. In a statement issued today, the charity further muddies the water by blurring the distinction between …

    Government 1 Mar 15:42

  • MS kicks off game coder compo

    $40k up for grabs

    Microsoft has started to take registrations for its annual Dream Build Play Challenge, a contest for indie game developers to showcase their skills with the chance to win big. The Dream.Build.Play 2011 Challenge is open to any Xbox 360 projects built with XNA Game Studio 4.0, a platform which can also be used to develop games …

    reghardware 1 Mar 15:48

  • Natalie Portman slaps John Galliano

    Shocked and disgusted by 'anti-Semitic rant'

    Oscar winner Natalie Portman has administered a righteous shoeing to fashion designer John Galliano, who has just been given his marching orders by Christian Dior after being accused of delivering a spectacularly obnoxious anti-Semitic rant. Galliano was caught on mobile phonecam last December outside Paris café La Perle, …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 16:37

  • IBM re-ups mainframe interface licensing with EMC

    System z to play nice with DMX and VMAX arrays

    IBM would prefer to sell its own DS or XIV series of disk arrays to its System z mainframe customers, but mainframe shops sometimes have other ideas, such as buying Symmetrix DMX or VMAX arrays. And that's why Big Blue has extended an interoperability and technology licensing agreement with disk array rival EMC. Under the …

    Storage 1 Mar 16:46

  • Password management site plugs info-leak bug

    LastPass covers ass

    Password management site LastPass has plugged a security hole in its website that created a means to extract the email addresses - though not the passwords - of enrolled users. The cross-site scripting bug meant that logged-in users induced to visit a malicious site would disclose their email addresses and sites associated …

    Enterprise Security 1 Mar 16:48

  • The Node Ahead: JavaScript leaps from browser into future

    Google V8 engine spawns server world doppelgänger

    Voxer is a walkie-talkie for the modern age, an iPhone app that lets you instantly talk across the interwebs and listen at the same time and leave voice messages if no one is on the other end and simultaneously chat with multiple people and toggle between text and voice to your heart's content. It's a real-time internet app in …

    Developer 1 Mar 18:39

  • IBM scores $23.6m e-health deal

    Health records set to go viral

    IBM has secured a $23.6m dollar contract with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to design and build Australia’s National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) project. The government project will provide the first nationwide secure and authenticated service for healthcare organisations and personnel to …

    Government 1 Mar 20:52

  • Digislide stiffed by Austrade

    Downhill slide halted for now

    South Australia tech start-up darling Digislide is embroiled in a wrangle with Austrade over denial of funding. The ASX listed company, which builds miniature projectors, has been lauded overseas with “hot technology” awards and has been part of numerous Austrade showcases such as Communicasia. In recent months it has also …

    Government 1 Mar 20:53

  • Microsoft plans June Windows 8 tablet tease?

    Wall Street wonder wanted

    Microsoft is planning a mid-year show-and-tell of its planned Windows 8 design for tablets, according to a report citing sources inside the company. Business Insider reports that Microsoft will show off the new tablet-happy Windows by the end of its fiscal year in June. Window 8 for tablets will use concepts from the Windows …

    Operating Systems 1 Mar 20:55

  • Assange claims Jewish conspiracy against WikiLeaks

    Not true says leaker's Twitter

    Julian Assange has claimed that WikiLeaks is the victim of an international conspiracy and smear campaign led by "Jewish" journalists, according to report citing a phone conversion with the WikiLeaks founder. But WikiLeaks challenged the accuracy of the report via its Twitter account. In the latest issue of Private Eye, the …

    Music and Media 1 Mar 21:00

  • Self-erasing flash drives destroy court evidence

    'Golden age' of forensics coming to close

    The inner workings of solid state storage devices are so fundamentally different from traditional hard drives that forensic investigators can no longer rely on current preservation techniques when admitting evidence stored on them in court cases, Australian scientists said in a research paper. Data stored on Flash drives is …

    ID 1 Mar 21:41

  • Fanboi rumor mill dances for iPad 2 iPad 3

    The Fondleslab Follies

    The iPad 2 – or whatever Jobs & Co choose to call it – is almost certain to be unveiled on Wednesday, judging from the not-so-subtle graphic used in the invitation for the roll-out event to be held in San Francisco. And already the buzzosphere is a-buzzing about the iPad 3 and an expanded MobileMe. Hmm... An iPad event on …

    reghardware 1 Mar 22:39