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11th March 2011 Archive

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  • Google contradicts own counsel in face of antitrust probe

    Admits existence of search algorithm whitelists

    Google has admitted that it uses whitelists to manually override its search algorithms, more than a year after its European corporate counsel denied the existence of whitelists when defending the company against antitrust complaints in the EU. According to Search Engine Land, Matt Cutts – the head of Google's webspam team – …

    Music and Media 11 Mar 00:16

  • iPhone and BlackBerry brought down in hacker competition

    Attack of the killer drive-bys

    Smartphones from Apple and Research in Motion were the latest devices to take a beating at an annual hacker contest that has come to expose the inherent weaknesses of internet communication. Apple's iPhone 4 was brought down by a drive-by attack that exploited a heap overflow in code related to the handset's Safari browser. It …

    Malware 11 Mar 01:54

  • Apple patent foresees ultra-svelte iDevices

    Skinnier than a 2.5mm phone plug

    Apple has filed a patent application for an audio port that accommodates a jack which is larger in diameter than the thickness of the device into which it's plugged. Published Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, the filing, entitled "Low Profile Plug Receptacle", is a resurrected version of an essentially identical …

    Music and Media 11 Mar 04:00

  • Intel and server buddies forge micro boxes

    Tiny Xeon blade-rack hybrids

    The Server System Infrastructure forum, which has been trying to establish blade and rack server standards for years, is moving into a new category called micro servers. And Intel is blazing the trail for the tiny form factor, together along partners Dell, Tyan, and Quanta Computer, which make motherboards and systems. Last …

    Servers 11 Mar 05:00

  • US Trans-Pacific Partnership proposal leaked

    NGO publishes Washington wish-list

    The group Knowledge Ecology International has scored a leaked copy of the IP protections the United States has proposed for the so-far-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty. The multi-lateral treaty negotiations include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam …

    Law 11 Mar 06:49

  • Marshall Major over-ear headphones

    Review Can cans

    Marshall, a name most widely associated with the kind of huge stacked guitar amplifier cabinets seen at stadium rock gigs, has launched two sets of headphones. The Marshall Minor is an in-ear set designed for mobile phones, and includes a mic on the inline remote control. Marshall's Major: definitely more Tom than John …

    reghardware 11 Mar 07:00

  • Automating the data centre

    Webcast Orchestrating the systems

    Today at 11am, we have some special guests to talk us through the finer points of managing a data centre efficiently. Tim Phillips from The Register is the host for the day and he's joined by Tony Lock from Freeform Dynamics, Greg Charman from Microsoft and Graham Rushton from Avanade. For some people, managing the services …

    Data Centre 11 Mar 08:38

  • Sony starts PS3 imports again

    Dutch courts lifts import ban

    A Dutch court yesterday lifted the injunction banning the import of Sony PlayStation 3s into Europe. LG and Sony have been locked in a patent dispute over BluRay technology. LG won an injunction over a week ago which left PlayStations locked in Dutch warehouses. Dutch law allowed LG to seek a 10-day temporary injunction while …

    PCs & Chips 11 Mar 09:35

  • BMI taken out by Anonymous

    Payback is a bitch

    Hacktivists affiliated to Anonymous have taken out the website of Broadcast Music Incorporated in a protest against its stance against file-sharing. The denial of service attack against the US-based performing rights society began late on Wednesday and remains ongoing, leaving its main bmi.com site difficult to access. …

    Crime 11 Mar 09:53

  • Lords vote for electronic devices in their chambers

    Says no to clicks, Google and 'e-mission creep'

    The Upper House yesterday took its first trembling steps into the 21st century, by agreeing to allow the use of electronic devices in the Lords – but only so long as they are hand-held and don’t make nasty clicking noises! Lord Brabazon of Tara kicked off debate by introducing a paper from the Administration and Works …

    Government 11 Mar 10:04

  • Apple iOS 4.3 cracked

    Jailbreak is reboot ready

    Apple's iOS 4.3 has been jailbroken - good news for anyone who wants to install apps that haven't made it through - or can't pass - the Mac maker's iTunes App Store vetting process. Better still, the jailbreak is 'untethered' - it doesn't require you to hook up your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to iTunes whenever you restart the …

    reghardware 11 Mar 10:10

  • World's bees face multiple threats

    Time to get busy, warns UN report

    The United Nations has suggested that the world's bees face multiple threats and unless something is done to halt their decline, there could be serious long-term consequences for food supplies. The last few years have seen bee populations hit hard, with "colony collapse disorder" making headlines as scientists struggle to …

    Biology 11 Mar 10:12

  • iLuv iEP515 in-ear earphones

    Txt Take Low-cost cans for phone fans

    Product reviews in 140 characters. iLuv iEP515 Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here.

    reghardware 11 Mar 10:15

  • W3C squeezes XML into portability

    Is that a schema in your pocket...

    Web-standards group the W3C has published its preferred standard for compressing XML documents into something more suitable for transmission over radio, and perhaps everywhere else too. Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) originated with a company called AgileDelta, whose CTO is still editor of the specification which tokenises …

    Mobile 11 Mar 10:35

  • Mind mapping for IT pros

    Workshop Draw something meaningful on those whiteboards

    Let’s clear up a couple of things to start with. The term mind mapping doesn’t come from a Spooks plot line. It isn’t about poking around in people’s noggins to extract secrets or reconfigure their brain. Nor is it some esoteric practice used solely by intellectuals enjoying the luxury of sitting around and thinking a lot. …

    Data Visualisation 11 Mar 10:45

  • Analyst says white iPhone 4 out next month

    From vapour to solid reality at last?

    The white iPhone 4 may finally lose its rocking-horse-poop rarity next month. We won't believe it until we see it, but according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of US investment house Concord Securities, the calls he's been putting in to Asian component suppliers and the like suggest the almost mythical handset is going into …

    reghardware 11 Mar 11:08

  • Giant 5-year-mission aerial wing-ship to fly in 2011

    Solar stratoplane set for New Mexico takeoff

    US military plans to build a mighty unmanned wing-ship able to cruise the stratosphere on flights lasting five years have moved forward with the announcement that flight tests of the "Vulture II" prototype are expected to commence next year. Vulture II is being produced by US aerospace mammoth Boeing, building on its …

    Science 11 Mar 11:16

  • Endeavour crawls to Kennedy launch pad

    Leisurely prelude to ISS mission to plonk down antimatter-detection kit

    Space shuttle Endeavour this morning complete its leisurely 3.4-mile journey from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A, ahead of its scheduled STS-134 mission launch on 19 April. NASA has provided the traditional cheery photo of the Endeavour crew, which shows commander Mark Kelly at bottom centre …

    Space 11 Mar 11:22

  • Lenovo offers schools Intel Classmate PC

    Nice-looking netbook for nippers

    Lenovo has begun pitching the latest incarnation of Intel's Classmate PC, a netbook for nippers. Inside the rather natty casing sits a 1.8GHz Atom N455 processor - not the latest of the line - 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive - solid state storage is optional - 10/100Mb/s Ethernet and 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Classmate+ …

    reghardware 11 Mar 11:32

  • XBox promo code exploit set Microsoft back $1.2m

    Points make prizes

    Hackers managed to figure out the algorithm used by Microsoft to generate promotional codes tied to XBox Live, costing Redmond an estimated $1.2m before it put a stop to the scam. The algorithm created 160 counterfeit MS points, the currency used on XBox Live, at each iteration. "Hackers found an algorithm to add to existing, …

    Crime 11 Mar 11:33

  • Should IT departments tackle desktop virtualisation on their own?

    Desktop virtualisation A helping hand?

    So, you’ve made the business case for your desktop virtualisation project and you have the budget to do it. The next question is whether you need outside help, either from product vendors or consultancies. How do you decide? No two organisations are created equal, and neither are IT departments. An organisation’s individual …

    Desktop Virtualisation 11 Mar 11:42

  • AOL waves goodbye to 900 staffers

    Jobs contract off back of content spending spree

    AOL pointed 900 of its employees towards the door marked Exit yesterday, as part of the company's effort to recast itself as a media content provider. Just last month, the firm's CEO Tim Armstrong confirmed the $315m buyout of the Huffington Post. Around 200 staffers based in the US were laid off, following that purchase. AOL …

    Financial News 11 Mar 11:46

  • Google adds tool to block shabby, dirty, vulgar sites from search results

    It's not you, it's me: Self-censorship in action

    Google has switched on a tool that allows web surfers to block searches for sites they don't want to see pop up on the results page. The stealth algorithm rejig is the latest in a series of changes the Mountain View Chocolate Factory has recently made to its lucrative search estate. "Now there’s yet another way to find more …

    Applications 11 Mar 12:16

  • Balanced, neutral journalism is RUBBISH and that's a FACT

    Not just boring but unhealthy to read

    New research has revealed what we here at the Register have always known to be the self-evident, hard, cold, factual truth: which is that balanced, neutral journalism is not just incredibly boring, it is also bad for readers' mental health and turns them into apathetic drones who can't be bothered to engage with the world around …

    Music and Media 11 Mar 12:18

  • Microsoft pushes back cut 'n' paste update

    On its way, later this month

    Microsoft is promising to get cut and paste into Windows Phones later this month, a delay brought on by the problems experienced by Samsung users with the last update. The news comes in what is supposed to be an open and honest blog posting from Eric Hautala – Microsoft's general manager of customer experience engineering. The …

    Mobile 11 Mar 12:25

  • Disabled gamers get place to play

    Help for the handicapped

    A charity that helps the handicapped play videogames has now opened a centre for them to test gaming gear and get advise from specialists. SpecialEffect has run a game lending library since 2008, sending out equipment to help those with disabilities continue to play games following life-altering injuries. The new centre …

    reghardware 11 Mar 12:27

  • Oracle accused of stifling HP TPC benchmark

    Too good to show

    Oracle has been accused of stifling the publication of an HP/Oracle DBMS benchmark that indicates its own SPARC SuperCluster world-record benchmark system cost almost 60 per cent more per transaction than a similar test on an HP Proliant system. The record TPC-C benchmark result is held by a $30.53m, 108 processor, SPARC …

    Servers 11 Mar 12:41

  • iPhone 5 design drawings spied on web

    iPhone 4 lookalike

    Engineering schematics for the upcoming iPhone 5 have slipped out onto the web. That's certainly what the white-on-black wireframe pictures are claimed to be by Asian site iDeals China to be. Source: iDeals China They drawings are said to have been produced for case makers to give them a basis on which to sculpt their own …

    reghardware 11 Mar 12:51

  • Dragon Age II

    Review Hit and myth

    Dragon Age 2, sequel to 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, plunges us once more into the realm of swords and sorcery – even adapting its history based on your Origins' saved game (if you have one). However, in terms of style and gameplay, there is perhaps more here that fans of Mass Effect will find familiar than series veterans. …

    reghardware 11 Mar 13:00

  • The reality of SaaS security and privacy

    Reader Study Reg readers speak

    It seems we can’t move at the moment for being bombarded with messages about Cloud and hosted services and how they’re going to take over the world. This may be a scary enough thought on its own, but for most of you, security and privacy concerns are top of the list when it comes to SaaS. Thanks to the forthright opinions and …

    Hosted Apps 11 Mar 13:02

  • Iron Mountain hit by hedge fund attack

    Stop digital and international growth

    Data-vaulting company Iron Mountain has been hit by a hedge fund shareholder attack that accuses management of disastrous forays into digital data storage and international expansion. It should become a real estate-focused company delivering cash to shareholders instead of wasting it on fruitless growth ambitions, says the fund …

    Cloud 11 Mar 13:03

  • Hated contractor tax might disappear

    Tax changes could do for IR35

    IR35 – the tax on one-person service companies – might be revoked by upcoming changes to UK tax law. The quango tasked with advising Chancellor George Osborne said it was difficult to know what to do about IR35 because of a lack of solid data. The Office of Taxation Simplification (OTS) said there was no reliable data. HMRC …

    Small Biz 11 Mar 13:05

  • YouTube seeks workers for fun times, cosy chats and ... political unrest

    You're hired. Put the kettle on

    There might be carnage going on over at AOL today, but things are looking decidedly rosier for anyone seeking a job at Google's yet-to-turn-profit video-sharing site YouTube. Google said it is now hiring at YouTube, and plans to considerably bump up its workforce. "2010 was a bang-up year," said the company. "And in 2011, we …

    Music and Media 11 Mar 13:12

  • InterWorx admits password security FAIL led to attack on users

    Change up

    Web-hosting administration outfit InterWorx has warned users to change their passwords following a deep penetrating hack attack. The assault on the firm's support desk database exposed users' login credentials because the support desk software was storing email and password data in plain text. Users were strongly advised to …

    Cloud 11 Mar 13:14

  • Dim Brits think TARDIS IS REAL

    Time travel, teleportation, lightsabres all true, innit?

    In the BBC series How TV Ruined Your Life, one-time games reviewer Charlie Brooker talks at length about the British public literally believing what is seen on their screens. This has now been confirmed with some investigative numberwang which shows that a large percentage of Brits are convinced fictional technology from …

    reghardware 11 Mar 13:41

  • TVonics intros 'durable' DVR

    Freeview HD recorder launched

    UK DVR specialist TVonics has introduced its second Freeview HD recorder, this one with a rather more discreet design than the company's first such offering. The "physically durable" metal-cased DTR-Z500HD follows the oblong TVonics design of old making it rather better at slotting into your AV stack than last year's huge DTR- …

    reghardware 11 Mar 14:11

  • Scareware slingers exploit Japan tsunami disaster

    Aftershock, not

    Pond-life malware writers have wasted little time poisoning search results based on Friday's devastating earthquake in Japan with links to scareware portals. Black-hat search engine manipulation was used to push sites offering fake security software high in the index of results based on the search term keyword "most recent …

    Malware 11 Mar 14:20

  • Xperia Play gets UK debut date

    PlayStation phone availability announced

    Sony Ericsson's PlayStation phone - the Xperia Play - now has a UK release date and price. It has also been confirmed that the gadget will come with six pre-installed games. The six titles have changed slightly since we discussed the launch of the Xperia Play at Mobile World Congress. The UK line-up is now: Bruce Lee Dragon …

    reghardware 11 Mar 14:44

  • Average Brit has three mysterious keys

    More than 2,000 tonnes of useless metal

    British people carry an average of nine keys around with them, but can identify only six of those, with no idea what the other three came from, or what they unlock... The figures come from esure, who asked a thousand or so average people and discovered that women carry 10 keys, compared to a chap's eight, but the girls are …

    Bootnotes 11 Mar 15:09

  • Stephen Fry explains... how TV works

    Competition Where you get to be a National Treasure™ (again)

    It's Fryday again, which means it's time to unleash more reader-contributed luvvie-speak of complicated technical things. You know – the sort of thing Stephen Fry might say when he doesn't have the correct answer placed in front of him on a piece of card by unpaid interns. Possibly. Here, the ubiquitous luvvie attempts to …

    Bootnotes 11 Mar 15:13

  • How do you find the skills needed in the virtualised data centre?

    Datacentre Calling all-rounders

    Staffing the constantly churning world of the data centre is becoming increasingly tricky. Not only is the technology moving fast, but many key IT workers are reaching retirement age. When they leave, decades of experience leaves with them, a problem that looms large among the concerns of many CIOs, according to Symantec’s …

    Data Centre 11 Mar 15:19

  • EU ministers give approval to patent scheme

    Commission to make detailed plans

    A new patent agreement covering 25 of the EU's 27 countries was given the green light by EU member states yesterday. The European Commission will now draw up a specific proposal for the scheme. EU bodies have tried for many years to create a single patent system for Europe whose costs are lower than at present. The current …

    Law 11 Mar 15:31

  • Betfair promises problems are behind it

    Betting on uptime

    Betfair suffered a brief outage this morning – one of several glitches the site has suffered in recent weeks. The problems at the betting exchange have alarmed customers, who could get stuck with an open position which they cannot close. An unusually helpful spokeswoman at Betfair explained the problems were related to moving …

    Cloud 11 Mar 15:39

  • Apple bans iPhone 3G patch omission talk from forum

    Policy talk is off limits, sunshine

    A Reg reader who brought up Apple's decision to exclude the iPhone 3G and other older devices from its latest security update on an official forum has received a firm rebuke for his effort. Apparently the post, which was quickly deleted, failed three separate rules of the Apple Discussions soviet, as a curt notice to our …

    Mobile 11 Mar 15:59

  • Managing and supporting the flexible desktop

    Desktop Strategy What, where and how?

    Many organisations nowadays crave the ability to offer employees “flexible” desktops. This is seen as a way of keeping pace with more mobile, flexible working practices by providing access to the same corporate desktop systems from any, or at least approved, Internet-connected devices. You can achieve this by virtualising …

    Desktop Strategy 11 Mar 16:21

  • SGI buys back spun-out Japanese unit

    A homecoming

    Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics wants a lot more business in Japan, the world's third largest economy. To get that business, the new SGI (the combination of Rackable Systems and Silicon Graphics) is buying back a Japanese unit that the old SGI sold off when it went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in May 2006. In a …

    Channel Register 11 Mar 16:34

  • Google man opens curtain on cloud apps firewall glitch

    Reveals stealth Chrome SPDY boost

    As Google builds HTML5 offline access into its Google Docs web-based word processor, the company has introduced a change that inadvertently causes problems for some netizens using the service behind a network firewall. Google will not reverse the change, saying that it's required for offline access, due later this year. But it …

    Cloud 11 Mar 18:00

  • Japanese earthquake sparks nuclear emergency

    Updated Meltdown feared

    The magnitude 8.9 or 8.8 earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday has forced the evacuation of thousands within a three-kilometer radius of a nuclear power plant, after a failure in its cooling system lead to the threat of a fuel-rod meltdown that's yet to be fully mitigated. According to Japan's Juji Press, the …

    Science 11 Mar 18:48

  • Cray strides past another $12m DARPA milestone

    Climbing towards the 'Cascade' range

    Supercomputer maker Cray has passed another milestone in its research and development effort for the "Cascade" massively parallel supercomputers it is developing for the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. In an 8K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Cray said that it has taken the next step toward …

    HPC 11 Mar 19:02

  • Megaquake cuts Japan phone lines

    Data centers successfully fail over

    Telephone communications across Japan have been disrupted following Friday's massive earthquake, although data center operations appear to be holding up. Millions of telephone lines are unavailable across the country, as it seems that a number of undersea cables have been cut or are reporting faults following the quake. The …

    Networks 11 Mar 19:38

  • App Store not invited to web's date with destiny

    Open...and Shut HTML and URL all the way

    Just as the web seemed to have won - with consumers living their lives online through Facebook and Google and enterprises embracing cloud computing - along comes the mobile app to spoil the party. And while mobile apps aren't the only force prompting a reconsideration of the web, as noted in The Economist, no single factor may …

    Software 11 Mar 20:40

  • iPad slaps Acer, pumps Dell's number two PC maker rank

    'Thanks, Steve – we owe you one'

    Dell has strengthed its position as the number-two PC seller in the world, thanks to Apple's iPad kicking Acer in a place it'd have preferred not to have been kicked. And no, we're not talking about that place, we're talking about netbook numbers. "Acer's decline was spurred by rising competition for its consumer-focused …

    PCs & Chips 11 Mar 21:12

  • HP squeaks past IBM into number one server seller spot

    Just in Europe, Middle East, and Africa – but still...

    European server sales and shipments may have been muted when compared than in the world at large in the fourth quarter, but business was healthily up: revenue grew by 9.1 per cent to $4.3bn, the highest seen in EMEA since Q1 2007, according to IDC – and HP slipped into the number-one server-seller spot, besting worldwide leader …

    Servers 11 Mar 22:00