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22nd March 2011 Archive

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  • Protect online retail, says eBay

    Calls to regulate 'restrictive' e-commerce

    eBay is undertaking a fully-fledged media campaign in Australia, securing an interview with the prestigious ABC Lateline Business programme. The online auctioneer-and-budding-mall has used the platform – and an extraordinarily soft interview – to call for Australia’s competition regulator to intervene in online retail in …

    Business 22 Mar 01:31

  • Apple sues Amazon over 'App Store' name

    The inevitable arrives

    Apple has sued Amazon.com, claiming the retail giant is using its "App Store" trademark without proper consent. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple filed suit on March 18 seeking to prevent Amazon from using the app store name and to win unspecified damages. "Amazon has begun improperly using Apple’s App Store mark in connection …

    Mobile 22 Mar 02:59

  • Dozens of exploits released for popular SCADA programs

    Giant bullseyes painted on industrial control software

    The security of software used to control hardware at nuclear plants, gas refineries and other industrial settings is coming under renewed scrutiny as researchers released attack code exploiting dozens of serious vulnerabilities in widely used programs. The flaws, which reside in programs sold by Siemens, Iconics, 7-Technologies …

    Enterprise Security 22 Mar 03:00

  • Canonical's Dell and Lenovo love lets Ubuntu down

    Open...and Shut Think small to beat the Apple experience

    You probably didn't notice, but a mini-war has been brewing on the Linux desktop. While Apple, Google, Microsoft and others earn billions claiming ground in the mobile computing gold rush, lesser-known open-source organizations like Canonical, Banshee, and Gnome are fighting over sums as small as $3,000 and which desktop UI will …

    Operating Systems 22 Mar 04:00

  • Thrutu

    Android App of the Week Push me

    Sending information from your phone to someone else’s in real time while still talking to them is something most of us have wanted to do at one time or another. Now, thanks to Thrutu, you can.    You have control over your call even when Thrutu's menu appears For Thrutu to do its voodoo both you and the person you are …

    reghardware 22 Mar 07:00

  • NHS to share foreigners' data with border agency

    Nothing clinical included

    The government has said it will introduce new processes to share data about foreign nationals who have outstanding debts for NHS treatment with the UK Border Agency. The move is part of a package of measures aimed at reducing health tourism that will see those who owe the NHS more than £1,000 barred from entering the UK, from …

    Government 22 Mar 09:01

  • Testers show MacBook Pro Turbo Boost oddness

    It works! Oh no it doesn't! Oh yes it does! etc, etc.

    Some unexpected benchmark results may show how Apple is implementing - or not - a key feature of Intel's second-generation Core i platform, 'Sandy Bridge'. Tests performed by dead-tree title PC Pro show that Sandy Bridge's Turbo Boost technology, which dynamically overclocks one, two or four cores based if the CPU load could …

    reghardware 22 Mar 09:16

  • 4G über-auction coming next year

    Ofcom pledges high speed access for all, maybe

    Ofcom has started consultations on how to run the biggest spectrum auction the UK has ever seen, though it seems maintaining the status quo is the name of the game. The mega-auction includes 250MHz of spectrum, much of which is released by the switch to digital television (the "digital dividend"). Ofcom is hoping the sell-off …

    Telecoms 22 Mar 09:36

  • RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet release slips

    Nudged back out of iPad 2's shadow?

    RIM's PlayBook tablet will be out slightly later than planned. The BlackBerry maker today announced a whole heap of network operators and retailers who will be selling the PlayBook in North America. Curiously, it didn't say when these retail partners will offer the 7in, QNX-running tablet, which RIM promised earlier this year …

    reghardware 22 Mar 09:47

  • Texan charged over multimillion pump-and-dump spam scam

    Really Rad badman's Russian hacking stock shock

    A Texas man has been charged with using spam from compromised machines to hoodwink potential investors into buying virtually worthless stock. Christopher Rad, 42, of Cedar Park, Texas, was arrested over allegations that he acted as a middleman in a pump-and-dump stock scam involving unscrupulous investors, spam from botnets …

    Crime 22 Mar 10:02

  • Play.com spam points to malware downloads

    Breach blamed on marketing company

    Multiple Reg readers were annoyed at receiving junk mail messages on Monday from addresses they had only registered with online retailer Play.com. Several of these junk mail sites pointed to black hat controlled domains that served up malware, heightening complaints on online forums (discussion on MoneySavingExpert here) and …

    Enterprise Security 22 Mar 10:06

  • Pliant puts shiny new CEO to work

    Hot swap at the top for flash start-up

    Enterprise flash drive start-up Pliant has brought in Richard Wilmer to run the company, replacing former CEO Amyl Ahola. Pliant makes single and multi-level cell, Lightning-branded solid state drives that can replace fast hard disks in enterprise storage arrays. It doesn't produce Fibre Channel interface drives though, and …

    Storage 22 Mar 10:30

  • Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker

    Review Plays music, takes calls

    It’s a chunky little fella, the Jambox, and when you look at it, it’s not instantly clear what it is. Jambox is the creation of Aliph, the makers of the excellent and stylish Jawbone Bluetooth headsets, and the company’s noise-cancelling smarts come into this product, too. In fact, it turns out it’s a great wireless stereo …

    reghardware 22 Mar 11:00

  • China rejects Google snoop claims

    Hot blame potato goes to and fro

    The Chinese government has rejected claims that it is responsible for problems with Gmail in recent weeks. Yesterday Google denied there was a technical reason for the recent problems with Gmail, instead blamed the Chinese government for snooping. Some Gmail users were unable to log onto their accounts, or having done so …

    Cloud 22 Mar 11:01

  • Dell takes x64 micro servers mainstream

    Vikings to conquer dedicated hosting, content streaming

    Dell is taking its micro servers, which it first created on a custom basis for dedicated hosters last year, mainstream in the PowerEdge-C line of machines. Micro servers, according to the definition espoused by Dell and Intel alike, are usually based on a single processor socket, have minimal memory, little or no …

    Servers 22 Mar 11:20

  • Duke Nuke goes misogynistic for multiplayer

    Gaffes for slaps

    As we get closer to the much-anticipated release of Duke Nukem Forever, it's inevitable to be fed more and more details on the game's features. Today, four DNF multiplayer modes have been revealed: Dukematch, Team Dukematch, Capture the Babe and Hail to the King. While the 'Dukematch' gamemodes should be self explanatory and …

    reghardware 22 Mar 11:39

  • HP revs NonStop blades with Tukwila Itaniums

    More fault tolerant bang, fewer bucks

    Hewlett-Packard is moving its NonStop fault tolerant database and operating system up to the latest "Tukwila" Itanium 9300 technology from chip partner Intel. The quad-core Itanium 9300s were launched by Intel back in February 2010, and HP revamped its Integrity blade servers to make use of these chips and to allow for them to …

    Servers 22 Mar 11:45

  • Cutting the cost of innovation

    Workshop Open source gears up to re-enter the fray

    Open source software might be free to download, but it ends up costing as much as traditional software because of the complexities of supporting it, or inflexible licensing structures. Or so the argument goes. You would expect to hear this from Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison or any of the other grand old men of proprietary …

    Open Source 22 Mar 11:49

  • BA jihadist relied on Jesus-era encryption

    30 years for airline bomb plot

    An IT worker from British Airways jailed for 30 years for terrorism offences used encryption techniques that pre-date the birth of Jesus. Rajib Karim, 31, from Newcastle, was found guilty of attempting to use his job at BA to plot a terrorist attack at the behest of Yemen-based radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al- …

    Crime 22 Mar 11:52

  • Southampton Uni shows way to a truly open web

    Untangling the semantic web Making Berners-Lee's vision a reality

    Southampton is pushing to be the go-to place for expertise on linked data in the UK, and researchers at its main university launched a site earlier this month containing no less than 21 "non-confidential" datasets that underline that semantic web desire. The University of Southampton (UoS) is one of the first academic …

    Cloud 22 Mar 11:53

  • Beeb reworks Wuthering Frikkin' Heights

    'FFS, Heathcliff! It is for God to punish scumbags'

    Middle England had better get ready to choke on its cocoa this weekend, because BBC Radio 3 is poised to unleash a "contemporary adaptation" of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The word "contemporary" gives the game away, and listeners can expect an earful of expletives in playwright Jonathan Holloway's reworking of the 1847 …

    Entertainment 22 Mar 12:15

  • Fujitsu wins £15m Welsh supercomputer bid

    Distributed grid in four years

    Fujitsu has won the bid to power Wales's high-performance computing (HPC) ambitions with a £15m, four-year project to build a supercomputer grid using Primergy Xeon servers and InfiniBand. The HPC Wales system is a hub-and-spoke design, with two connected hubs at Cardiff and Swansea/Pembroke Dock, connected by Mellanox- …

    HPC 22 Mar 12:17

  • Behind the Ofcom plan: four LTE networks, and not a lot else

    Defining technology, without defining technology

    The packaging of radio spectrum often makes a mockery of technical neutrality, and Ofcom's plan for the digital dividend is no exception though the regulator had surprisingly little choice in the matter. Ofcom's proposal for selling off 250MHz of radio spectrum runs to 555 pages, with annexes and technical reports, but that's …

    Mobile 22 Mar 12:21

  • Vodafone takes orders for PlayStation phone

    Xperia Play can be yours... soon

    Vodafone is to give the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - aka the PlayStation phone - away for nothing, provided you sign up for a two-year contract with £35-or-more monthly sub. Reduce your monthly payment and you'll have to cough up more up-front for the gaming handset: £99 on a £30pm tariff, or £199 on a £25pm package. It'll …

    reghardware 22 Mar 12:41

  • Motorstorm Apocalypse

    Review Hit the quakes

    Motorstorm Apocalypse's unabashed and riotous disregard for realism is the antithesis of most modern racing games – and it makes perfect sense. Who cares about traction control, sports intake manifolds and torque splits when you're taking a high-octane tour through the picture-postcard backdrops of the apocalypse? Low fly …

    reghardware 22 Mar 13:00

  • Virtual Facebook thief jailed for two years

    British hacker gets very real sentence

    A British hacker who funded his gambling addiction by stealing and reselling online gaming chips from Zynga has been jailed for two years. Ashley Mitchell, 29, from Paignton, Devon, was sent down last week after earlier pleading guilty to five charges of hacking and theft at Exeter Crown Court. Mitchell exploited shortcomings …

    Enterprise Security 22 Mar 13:03

  • MeeGo or MS? Nokia ponders tablet OS

    Phone giant seemingly unsure which one to pick

    Nokia's agreement to base future smartphones on Windows Phone 7 doesn't extend to tablets. So says an unnamed mole cited by Reuters. He or she claims the Finnish phone giant hasn't ruled out using MeeGo, the mobile-centric version of Linux the company had been promoting with Intel, in any tablet it offers in a bid to compete …

    reghardware 22 Mar 13:04

  • Desktop options today

    Dtop Strategy A checkpoint on delivering desktops

    Tomorrow's desktop is mobile. It's a phone, a smart device of some sort, a laptop - and there will of course be some fixed PCs in there too. But enterprises already need to cater for an increasing proportion of mobile workers, and that proportion is set to grow. The challenge is not just how to deliver enterprise-level …

    Desktop Strategy 22 Mar 13:07

  • Steve Jobs must face the music in court

    Two hours' questioning for Apple boss

    Lawyers will get two hours to question Apple supremo Steve Jobs as part of an anti-trust case brought against Apple and iTunes. Judge Howard Lloyd of US District Court for Northern California said Jobs could only be questioned on relevant changes to software made in October 2004. The case is a class action suit. Plaintiffs …

    Music and Media 22 Mar 13:39

  • Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear

    Hysteria rages unchecked as minor incident winds down

    Events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan continue to unfold, with workers there steadily restoring redundancy and containment measures across the site. It remains highly unlikely that the workers themselves will suffer any measurable health consequences from radiation, and – continued media scaremongering …

    Physics 22 Mar 13:49

  • Hosted Apps: the risks and management challenges

    On demand Reg readers join in

    Recently we ran a short series exploring the potential and pitfalls of SaaS (software-as-a-service). The Reg readers rather enjoyed getting stuck into the challenges and the opportunities. So we pulled it together into a two-part compendium for your viewing pleasure. Part 1 is here – where we look at the primary inhibitor: the …

    Hosted Apps 22 Mar 13:52

  • USB key to 4,000 vulnerable people's front doors lost

    Leicester council rushes to reset staff access codes

    Leicester City Council has misplaced a USB stick containing personal details of 4,000 vulnerable and often elderly users of its care service. The data has disappeared from LeicesterCare, the council's vulnerable residents' support service. Along with personal information, the stick also has key codes for 2,000 people, which …

    Government 22 Mar 13:57

  • Cloud says 'no'

    Workshop Internal challenges for the public cloud

    Apart from a few laggard evangelists and smaller vendors with nothing else to sell, most people with an interest in cloud computing have concluded that a wholesale move of everything IT into the cloud won’t happen any time soon. The various reasons boil down to a couple of fundamentals - that some things will always need to …

    Cloud 22 Mar 14:00

  • UK iPad 2 to cost under £400

    Will go on sale on Friday, Apple insists

    We're getting the iPad 2 a little more cheaply than last time. Apple today re-iterated that the second version of its hugely popular tablet will go on sale on Friday, 25 March. This time round, the basic, Wi-Fi only model with 16GB of storage will retail for £399, down from £429. The 32GB version will cost £479, the 64GB £ …

    reghardware 22 Mar 14:13

  • 'R' is for Revolution Analytics

    Blog Statistical significance

    Recently I met the analytics firebrands Revolution Analytics at their Bay Area offices. Outwardly, the facilities were conventional, and no one called me ‘comrade’. But what they showed me over the next couple of hours sparked my imagination and even a bit of revolutionary fervor. I’m convinced that predictive analytics is …

    HPC Blog 22 Mar 15:00

  • Sensitive data easily swiped from eBayed mobiles

    Smut, logins and bank card PINs - oh my!

    Second-hand mobile phones sold on by their owners often contain extensive personal and sensitive data that leave sellers open to identity theft and other privacy risks. Pre-owned mobile phones and SIM cards purchased on eBay or from shops were checked using readily available equipment to see what personal information was left …

    Mobile 22 Mar 15:08

  • DataCore adds NAS head, high-availability

    More tunes for SANsymphony-V

    DataCore has added NAS acceleration and high-availability to its SANsymphony-V product. The basic configuration is two mirrored servers. SANsymphony-V software runs in each server with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and its built-in NAS services, Hyper-V, and Microsoft's Clustered File Share functions, and provides a thinly- …

    Storage 22 Mar 15:09

  • Play.com: Only customer emails lost in data breach

    Mailshotter Silverpop blamed for malwarey kerfuffle

    Online retailer Play.com has named its marketing partner Silverpop as the guilty party behind the disclosure of customer names and email addresses. The breach led to distribution of spam to email addresses only registered with the online retailer on Sunday, a development that led to howls of protest from users. These emails …

    ID 22 Mar 15:42

  • BlackBerry users get free remote wipe, backup and location

    Be your own BOFH

    BlackBerry users without an IT department behind them can now locate, back up and remotely wipe their handsets for free, as RIM bulks out its consumer offering. The free BlackBerry Protect service is now in open beta, providing a host of functionality previously restricted to enterprise users but now available direct from RIM …

    Mobile 22 Mar 15:57

  • Converting between backup formats is possible after all

    Comment Our storage man sustains moderate gast to the flabber

    I had always thought it was impossible to convert files from one backup format to another: to migrate files from Symantec NetBackup to HP DataProtector, for example. But actually, you can. A new product from Butterfly Software does exactly that. Butterfly Software is based in Maidenhead in the UK and I'm only going on what the …

    Storage 22 Mar 16:17

  • WRONG kind of WIND blamed for renewable red-ink FAIL

    It doesn't blow, it sucks

    Windfarm operator the Renewable Energy Generation Group has blamed "abnormally low wind speeds" across the UK for greater-than-expected losses. The, er, REG Group acquired Cornwall Wind and Power in 2005, and now operates 10 wind power sites with a (theoretical) capacity of 41.15MW. It is quoted on AIM, the London Stock …

    Environment 22 Mar 16:46

  • Samsung intros 'skinnier than iPad 2' tablets

    Android 3.0 and low, low prices

    Samsung's newly introduced 8.9in Galaxy Tab tablet is a massive, unbelievable 0.5mm thinner than the iPad 2. Yes, the new Apple tablet is 8.9mm thick, while the as-yet-unreleased Samsung rival is 8.4mm front to back. Credit where it's due: Samsung deserves praise for for shaving off less than a millimetre of thickness to make …

    reghardware 22 Mar 16:50

  • NUDE WOMEN rally for imprisoned soldier Bradley Manning

    Pics Unclad Frisco Wilileaks brouhaha

    Supporters of Bradley Manning stripped down to their skivvies outside the office of US Senator Dianne Feinstein to protest the treatment of the suspected WikiLeaker, who is being held in solitary confinement, often without being allowed to wear clothes. Chanting slogans such as “Solitary confinement is inhumane” and “Due …

    Government 22 Mar 17:18

  • Firefox 4 debuts: The last kitchen sink release

    Everything in. One last time

    Mozilla has officially released Firefox 4, the latest version of its popular open-source browser, after nearly a year of development. Available for download on Windows, Linux, and Mac, Firefox 4 offers added JavaScript performance through a new extension to Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine, hardware acceleration on all platforms …

    Applications 22 Mar 18:06

  • Pat Gelsinger gets the Infosmack treatment

    EMC man talks cloud

    Let's talk a little about this week's Infosmack, the world's best podcast about enterprise technology. Episode 91's big guest is Pat Gelsinger, EMC's second-in-command, and former Intel bigwig. He talks about the transformation of EMC from just another high-end storage company to becoming a player in the Cloud. Pat is talking …

    Infosmack 22 Mar 18:20

  • How Microsoft uses Visio

    case study

    Microsoft uses Visio for organisational charting, and in addition is using Visio 2010 to document human resources (HR) business processes for Microsoft International, with 600 employees in more than 100 countries. HR processes varied widely and inducing new staff was costing different amounts in different places. To save costs …

    Data Visualisation 22 Mar 18:21

  • The price of the average foaming tankard - in pictures

    Here for the beer

    There are many ways to demonstrate data visualisation, but none better than visualising beer prices at the Munich Oktoberfest, possibly the best excuse in the world to spend five days downing rivers of lager. Courtesy of Chris Roth, editor of Visio Guy, we present the Munich Oktoberfest Visio template. Roth is a native of …

    Data Visualisation 22 Mar 18:32

  • US gov opposes Microsoft in i4i patent spat

    Juries get confused. And this is complicated

    The US government has thrown its support behind tiny i4i in its Office patent dispute with Microsoft. US acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, employed by the Department of Justice, has filed an amicus brief in the case that comes out against Microsoft. Katyal wrote that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), rather than …

    Channel Register 22 Mar 19:16

  • Apple showers love on Mac malware protection

    Feeds Snow Leopard's neglected Xprotect

    For only the second time in 19 months, Apple has updated the signatures used to protect Mac users against malware attacks. An update released Monday for Mac OS X 10.6, aka, Snow Leopard, adds detection for a trojan known as OSX.OpinionSpy. The malware comes bundled with Mac screensavers and applications available on various …

    Malware 22 Mar 20:35

  • Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 debut

    Pinch it to zoom it

    Opera has released new versions of both its mobile browsers, offering improved scrolling, panning, and zooming on each. On Tuesday, the Norwegian browser maker unveiled Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11. Both offer "pinch-to-zoom" on all devices that support the interface gesture popularized by the iPhone, and both offer a new …

    Applications 22 Mar 20:47

  • Judgment stalls Google book settlement

    Judge declines to reward mass unauthorised scanning

    The 2008 settlement between the Authors' Guild and Association of American Publishers and Google is in limbo for a while, after a New York District Court judge rejected it as "going too far". The settlement, reached after Google was sued for its mass-scanning of books without permission, had given the Chocolate Factory the …

    Law 22 Mar 20:47

  • Interview: Unisys on the cybercrime treaty

    Why Australia should sign up

    Australia is working through the long process of acceding to the European Convention on Cybercrime. It’s a process that causes significant angst. Privacy advocates are concerned at the convention’s intrusive nature; ISPs worry about how much data they’d have to carry. Unisys is an advocate of the convention, both in Australia …

    Security 22 Mar 21:10

  • Facebook snaps up Snaptu

    Gets democratic with mobile apps

    Facebook is acquiring Israeli mobile app start-up Snaptu for an undisclosed sum. Snaptu develops smartphone-like mobile applications for the masses who do not have high end handsets. Founded in 2007, Snaptu has been working on apps for the 95 per cent of mobile users that don’t have access to advanced smartphones and has …

    Financial News 22 Mar 21:16

  • Googlebooks pact rejected by federal judge

    'De facto monopoly' feared

    A federal judge has rejected an amended version of Google's $125 million book-scanning settlement with American authors and publishers, a deal that threatened to rewrite American copyright law and give Google exclusive rights to so-called orphaned works. On Tuesday, Judge Denny Chin rejected the Amended Settlement Agreement ( …

    Music and Media 22 Mar 21:25

  • Japanese quake shakes semiconductor biz

    Boards and chip packages hit too

    Chip makers and the computer and electronic suppliers that depend on them are only now beginning to sort out the effect that the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan will have on their businesses. At the moment, the disaster has not caused huge supply problems for the makers of key processor, graphics card, and memory …

    Channel Register 22 Mar 21:50