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6th May 2011 Archive

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  • Sony continues slog from pit of shame

    PSN and PC networks in 'final stages of internal testing'

    It is now day 15 of The Great Sony Cock-Up of 2011™, and the Japanese giant finally has some good news. No, not that their PSN and PC gaming networks are up and running again, but that they should be soon. "Today our global network and security teams at Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment began the final …

    Security 6 May 00:32

  • Wall Street Journal launches own WikiLeaks

    SafeHouse for whisteblowers

    A new chapter has started in the long and complex story of Julian Assange’s relationship with mainstream media, with the Wall Street Journal launching a competitor whistleblower site. SafeHouse is soliciting whistleblower documents covering “politics, government, banking, Wall Street, deals and finance, corporations, labor, …

    ID 6 May 01:00

  • New York attorney general escalates Sony attack probe

    Subpoena issued

    New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has put Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment on the rack over the PSN fiasco. The New York Times is reporting that Schneiderman’s office has issued a subpoena to Sony to explain itself over the the Playstation Network data …

    ID 6 May 02:00

  • PC rental store hid secret spy hardware in laptop, suit says

    Keystrokes, screen shots, webcam pics tapped

    A Wyoming couple has filed a federal lawsuit claiming a computer they purchased came with secret spying hardware that allowed the seller to monitor their every move. According to the complaint, Brian and Crystal Byrd first learned of the snoop device when they received a visit at home from a manager of the local Aaron's rent-to …

    Channel Register 6 May 03:00

  • Red Hat: Cloud will anoint next Microsoft

    Don't pick Microsoft again

    It is not enough in this world to be for something. You also have to be against something. And if one message was delivered by Red Hat's top brass at its eponymous Summit in Boston this week, it's that the company is for open source and openness and that it's absolutely against Microsoft and VMware. Those of you who are Red …

    Platform 6 May 04:00

  • Perl and Python float on open source VMware cloud

    ActiveState heavy-lifts so you don't have to

    PHP might dominate the web LAMP stack, but ActiveState is taking steps to fluff the two other dynamic languages that put the "P" in LAMP: Python and Perl. On Thursday, the company released an early implementation of VMware's open source Cloud Foundry, which ActiveState promised would help reduce the effort of migrating Python …

    Platform 6 May 05:00

  • Crystal Acoustics PicoHD5.1

    Review Compact, media savvy player for under-equipped tellies

    Most TVs now have memory card slots and USB ports for showing digital photos or playing music and video from your own collection. The Crystal Acoustics PicoHD5.1 media player provides the same features for just about any TV, especially HD-ready ones. If your set lacks the sockets, or doesn’t play the formats you want, you can …

    reghardware 6 May 06:00

  • Nutter preflames El Reg 'cockheads'

    FoTW Pre-emptive strike against Barnes & Noble outrage

    God alone knows, we at El Reg are used to taking a bit of stick, but it's come to something when the nutters crawl out of the woodwork before we've even had a chance to offend. Take the recent Barnes & Noble/Microsoft outrage. Naturally, our top people were instantly on the job, and they also managed to find time to cover the …

    Odds and Sods 6 May 06:00

  • Boffins develop method of driving computers insane

    Test machine 'claimed responsibility for terrorist bombing'

    Boffins in America report that they have successfully developed a method for driving computers insane in much the same way as human brains afflicted by schizophrenia. A computer involved in their study became so unhinged that it apparently "claimed responsibility for a terrorist bombing". The research involved meddling with a …

    Biology 6 May 07:57

  • Quiet May Patch Tuesday follows record April

    The calm after the storm

    Microsoft is giving hard-pressed sysadmins a bit of a breather this month with plans to release only two updates during the May edition of its regular Patch Tuesday monthly update cycle. Just one of the two bulletins due to be published next Tuesday covers a critical update, in sharp contrast to the record-breaking crop of 17 …

    Enterprise Security 6 May 08:38

  • Fake certificate attack targets Facebook users in Syria

    al-Assad family suspected of spying on its subjects

    A man-in-the-middle attack is being run against users of the secure version of Facebook in Syria, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warns. The semi-professional attack against the HTTPS version of the Facebook site relies on a digital certificate unsigned by any Certificate Authority and probable re-routing of traffic …

    Enterprise Security 6 May 09:11

  • A handy guide to cloud service measurement

    That new black magic

    Calculating Return On Investment (ROI) for internal IT services is messy. Businesses want costs justified on a service-by-service basis. This approach has its flaws; IT service delivery is more than the sum of its parts. Much black magic is involved in lashing various aged and often incompatible systems together. Replacing or …

    Cloud Business 6 May 09:15

  • Websites should notify European users about privacy breaches

    European justice commish says EU privacy laws should be extended

    Europe-wide laws which require telecommunications companies to notify users if their data is at risk should be extended, the European justice commissioner has said. Privacy rules created under the EU's Electronic Communications Framework should be extended to cover online banking, video games, shopping and social media, …

    Government 6 May 09:18

  • Sophos buys security appliance firm Astaro

    Getting into the God-box business

    UK-based net security firm Sophos is getting into the hardware game with the purchase of all-in-one security appliance firm Astaro. Terms of the deal to acquire privately held Astaro, announced Friday, were not disclosed. Astaro, with $56m in billings during 2010, is the fourth largest dedicated unified threat management (UTM …

    Financial News 6 May 09:21

  • NASA shortlists three contenders for next robo-probe mission

    Ice-moon sailboat, Martian drillrig, comet-furtler

    NASA has announced the shortlist for its next "Discovery" robot solar-system explorer mission and has also selected three groovy new space technologies for further funding. Discovery missions are relatively inexpensive space shots – funding for this next one is limited to $425m plus launch costs – in which the flight plan is …

    Space 6 May 09:31

  • Government close to reduced NHS IT deal with CSC

    'Reduced scope' for implementations of Lorenzo software, less cash for CSC

    The Department of Health has said it has reached the closing stages of negotiations with CSC, one of the two local service providers to the NHS National Programme for IT, over a new memorandum of understanding covering its future work for the health service. The deal looks set to cut CSC's income from the NHS. The firm has …

    Channel Register 6 May 09:37

  • Apple reportedly plans ARM shift for laptops

    'Done deal', apparently

    Apple may - and we emphasis that last word - have decided to transition its laptops from Intel processors to ARM-based CPUs Intel certainly has a fight on its hands in the media tablet market, currently dominated by ARM chippery, but does it need to worry about the laptop space too? It will if the allegation about Apple, made …

    reghardware 6 May 09:41

  • Sony Ericsson intros Xperia minis

    Gingerbread biccies

    Sony Ericsson has outed 2011's successors to 2010's Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The new ones take the same names as their predecessors, minus the 'X10' and with a SE's newfound e.e. cummings-like disdain for capital letters. Both mini and mini pro - we will use capitals hereafter - are based on 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon …

    reghardware 6 May 10:17

  • Parents get iOS analytical toolkit to track kids' progress

    With Facebook links to show off their progeny's intellectual prowess

    Busy parents worried about raising their kids while making full use of their data plan can now use The SmarTots platform to keep tabs on how their children are progressing though their (iOS-powered) education. The app will even suggesting new applications and even some offline activities should time allow. Parents have, until …

    Mobile 6 May 10:30

  • TalkTalk goes silent

    Integrated services, integrated failure

    TalkTalk, the Lidl of telephony providers, has suffered a catastrophic network failure that has taken down its website and disrupted voice calls for customers. The company's sites are currently displaying an apology, and stating that while voice services were disrupted they are now back up and running, so calls should be …

    Telecoms 6 May 10:31

  • Duke Nukem taken to the shrink

    Video Action Man

    Duke Nukem 3D's Shrinker weapon returns in DK Forever - with comic results. Nuff said.

    reghardware 6 May 10:39

  • Everest climber finds 3G signal, sends Tweet

    Cloudline computing

    A British climber has allegedly become the first person to Tweet, use Facebook and make a 3G phone call from atop Mount Everest today, raising the point that nowhere, not even the top of the effin' world, is safe from the reaches of cellphones and social networking. It was the ninth occasion the unlikely named Kenton Cool has …

    reghardware 6 May 10:50

  • IT service fitness: prevention is better than cure

    Webcast The omnipresence of IT

    Delivering a service is dependent on getting networks, storage, servers, operating systems, middleware and applications to work together to agreed levels. But we know how difficult it is to keep these complex chains running reliably; and the problem gets more acute when we throw virtualisation in to the mix. The answer is to …

    CIO 6 May 11:00

  • Google sprays customers with cash in AdWords cockup

    £100 voucher morphs into gigantic £75,000 bonanza

    Google mistakenly credited huge sums of money into an unknown number of UK customers' AdWords accounts, after some were handed a £100 voucher from Mountain View to redeem on the service. AdWords user Pete Williams told The Register that Google wrongly plonked £75,000 into his account after he redeemed the voucher. "I got one …

    Music and Media 6 May 11:11

  • Woman with 15 IDs gets 7 years for multiple VAT fraud

    Catherine, Allison, Mallory, Claire, Verity, Jessica, too

    A Bristol woman has been jailed for using a complex web of 15 different identities and companies to defraud the Revenue out of £118,000. 48-year-old Alison Reynolds was jailed for seven years yesterday for VAT fraud and police offences. Reynolds was found guilty of four charges of cheating the Public Revenue, one charge of …

    Policing 6 May 11:18

  • Java-based malware tries Mac-smacking cross-platform attack

    Write once, pwn anywhere

    Malware-writers have developed a Java-based, equal-opportunity botnet Trojan in an apparent bid to infect more machines outside the Windows ecosystem. IncognitoRAT uses source code and libraries that allow it to attack both Windows and Mac machines, at least in theory. Only the Windows version of the malicious downloader has …

    Enterprise Security 6 May 11:19

  • World 3D TV sales to jump in 2011

    But still only a small percentage of tellies shipped

    World shipments of 3D TVs will jump 463 per cent this year, market watcher IHS iSuppli has forecast, as TV makers tone done their feverish promotion of the technology. Releasing cheaper sets is helping too, it will surprise no one to learn. Some 23.4m 3D TVs will ship this year, up from 4.2m in 2010, iSuppli reckons. Global …

    reghardware 6 May 11:23

  • UK.gov would pay to have benefit claimants' tattoos erased

    Signing off before signing off

    The government has confirmed that it is prepared to pay for plastic surgery for tattoo-emblazened benefit claimants – if the inked-up individuals get a job offer first. The unemployment eraser plan was confirmed in a Commons answer yesterday. David Ruffley MP had asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions "what …

    Government 6 May 11:26

  • What treasures will the US really find on bin Laden's hard disk?

    Analysis Rants? For sure. Porn? Maybe. Intelligence? Unlikely

    Computers and digital media seized from alleged al Qaeda supporters in Britain, Iraq and other hotspots in the war on terror have generally not provided forward intelligence enabling governments to prevent and deter new attacks. Hopes maybe high that the fruits of last weekend's assault on bin Laden's HQ's will yield an …

    Policing 6 May 11:50

  • JVC Everio GS-TD1 3D camcorder

    Review Purpose-built stereo shooter for Avatar aficionados

    Let’s cut to the chase: JVC’s £1,600 GS-TD1 is the most sophisticated 3D camcorder you can buy. While Panasonic may have pioneered DIY 3D moviemaking with its bolt-on 3D accessory lens, this is the first stereoscopic shooter aimed squarely at the pro-sumer. It’s been unabashedly built for 3D from the ground up. Visual feast: …

    reghardware 6 May 12:00

  • Brocade shindig sees the fabric king stretching out

    Comment 'We're gonna change the industry'

    The data centre without walls: that's the vision that's driving Brocade. The Fibre Channel fabric king held a Techday Summit in San Jose on May 2 and 3 and outlined its cloud-optimised thinking around the data centre becoming the network in virtual enterprises. It's a neat vision but what does it boil down to? Every data …

    Data Networking 6 May 12:10

  • Google offers to pop round and take some piccies

    Takes the View off the streets: Go on, just a few tasteful snaps

    Google is asking businesses to invite it in to take photographs, extending Street View into hotels, restaurants and shops to show what's inside as well as what's outside. The project is called "Business Photos" and involves a Google photographer dropping by for an hour or so to take a series of panoramic shots. Some of those …

    Music and Media 6 May 12:35

  • MIRACULOUS new AIRSHIP set to fly by 2013

    Helium buoyancy issue solved at last?

    Intriguing news on the airship beat today, as it is reported that a mysterious, well-nigh miraculous new technology – one which could potentially lead to the appearance of enormous aerial vessels fit to dwarf even the zeppelin leviathans of the 1930s – is to get flight trials within two years. Walrus isn't dead, just resting …

    Science 6 May 13:10

  • US adds jobs, but unemployment rate jumps in April

    IT manufacturing and consulting rise

    With the US economy recovering, people are piling back into the job market, as expected, and that is causing the unemployment rate to rise even as the economy added 244,000 net new jobs in April. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the part of the US Department of Labor that surveys households and businesses to take the workforce …

    Financial News 6 May 13:37

  • Samsung, Apple knock Nokia off top handset spots

    King dethroned in European markets

    Nokia has been knocked off the top spot as Europe's best-selling phone maker by Samsung, and in the smartphone arena by Apple. First-quarter figures released by market watcher IDC give the South Korean giant 29.3 per cent of the market, just ahead of Nokia's 27.9 per cent share. Nokia's unit shipments fell ten per cent on its …

    reghardware 6 May 13:48

  • Jaguar hybrid supercar gets green light

    C-X75 yours for at least 700 grand

    Hybrid Jaguar supercar, anyone? Yours for £700,000-plus, though you'll save your VED payments, if you want to put your name down for one of the 250 that Jaguar will build. We're talking about the C-X75, a beast capable of 200mph and beyond, yet pumps out less than 99g of CO2 each kilometre it drives. Jaguar showed off the C- …

    reghardware 6 May 14:07

  • Freedom of Information Act inquiry ducks FOIA requests

    Climategate email investigator and UEA both clam up

    An academic inquiry which recommended that scientists respond more honestly to FOIA requests has found a creative way to evade FOIA requests. The University of East Anglia set up the Independent Climate Change Email Review to examine serious charges of academic misconduct by its scientists. An archive containing emails, code …

    Government 6 May 14:18

  • Microsoft ID guru quietly skips away from Redmond

    Updated Report points digital identity poster child at door marked exit

    Microsoft's top identity architect Kim Cameron, who was last seen on these pages bemoaning Apple's "duplicitous" privacy policies, reportedly quit Redmond earlier this week. According to ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley, who cites anonymous sources, Cameron had a leaving do at Microsoft on Wednesday. However, both Cameron and Microsoft …

    ID 6 May 14:30

  • Tales from the storage frontier: What's next for flash, disk and tape

    Disk spinning slower and slower

    Flash is the new disk and disk is the new archive: so said an AOL presenter at Brocade's Techday summit. What was he smoking? Is this just spin? I believe not. I believe we are seeing the dawning of a new storage age, one in which flash is used to store primary, tier one data; capacity disk is used to hold secondary and backup …

    Storage 6 May 15:22

  • Russian tycoon buys Warner Music

    Len Blavatnik shells out $3.3bn for the music group

    Warner Music has been sold to US businessman Len Blavatnik, according to credible reports, in a $3.3bn deal. The company's $1.9bn debt is also transferred to its new owner, valuing Warner at $1.3bn. Blavatnik's Access Industries paid 34 per cent over the market price for the music group. The Russian-born tycoon, who also owns …

    Music and Media 6 May 15:33

  • White House warns El Reg over kitten-killing content

    Vulture Central hack runs for reinforced bunker complex

    I fear this may be the last copy I ever file, following a chilling warning from the White House regarding stories I may or may not write next week, and which could have devastating consequences for the future of humanity. Earlier today, I ill-advisedly posted a rather tasty flame from "cockhead@dickhead.com", pre-objecting to …

    Bootnotes 6 May 15:49

  • Elite coder readies £15 programming gadget for schools

    PEEK in a POKE

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation may sound like a school for aspiring bakers, but it aims to promote computer science by producing an inexpensive miniature PC called Raspberry Pi. Games developer David Braben, famous for titles such as Elite and Rollercoaster Tycoon, is the project lead. And he wants to bring a £15 USB Flash drive- …

    reghardware 6 May 16:24

  • Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman steps down

    Updated Natty Narwhal herding no more

    Matt Zimmerman, chief technology officer at commercial Linux distributor Canonical, is stepping down. In a blog post today, Zimmerman said after seven years with the company, which creates and supports the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, "the time is right for me to move on from this role, where I enjoy so much support from my …

    Operating Systems 6 May 16:55

  • Dear Google and Facebook: You don't want Skype

    Open...and Shut Give it to Cisco. Or AT&T

    The word is out that Facebook and Google are now considering partnerships with or acquisition of Skype. The big question, however, is what they'd do with it. As eBay discovered to its hurt, Skype isn't a product that necessarily plays well with others. Skype-plus-eBay never made sense to me. Then eBay chief executive Meg …

    VoIP 6 May 17:33

  • HP's beloved 12c calculator turns 30

    Reverse Polish Notation. The geekerati's bond

    One of the most durable examples of mobile electronic goodness is turning 30: the HP 12c Financial Calculator. Learning the Reverse Polish Notation entry system of the HP 12c has been a rite of passage for Wall Street moneymen since 1981, when the HP 12c was introduced along with such other calculating classics as the HP 15c …

    Science 6 May 19:08

  • Do-Not-Track laws gain US momentum

    Google on wrong side of power brokers

    A national law limiting information businesses can gather on consumers online looks increasingly likely, with Senator John Rockefeller the latest politician to jump on bandwagon for do-not-track legislation. The chairman of the powerful US senate commerce committee plans to introduce a bill next week that will require …

    ID 6 May 19:14

  • Skype bug gives attackers access to Mac OS X machines

    'Extremely wormable and dangerous'

    Mac users running Skype are vulnerable to self-propagating exploits that allow an attacker to gain unfettered system access by sending a specially manipulated attachment in an instant message, a hacker said. “The long and the short of it is that an attacker needs only to send a victim a message and they can gain remote control …

    VoIP 6 May 19:40

  • Intel keeps heat on AMD with Tri-Gate transistors

    Don't count that Bulldozer market share just yet

    Can a 32 nanometer Bulldozer jump a 22 nanometer Tri-Gate transistor to cross an Ivy Bridge? In 2012, we're gonna find out. Advanced Micro Devices and its foundry partner, GlobalFoundries, are just ramping up production on 32 nanometer wafer baking processes, in theory catching up to Intel, which has had 32 nanometer processes …

    Servers 6 May 23:19

  • Ubuntu cloud chief beats CTO to exit door

    Four in charge at Canonical

    You can add another name to the board members leaving Ubuntu steward Canonical:Neil Levine, the executive in charge of the Linux's cloud and server maturation. He has left Canonical for a six-man, venture-capital funded start up called Soba Labs currently in stealth mode and working on cloud systems management. Levine is a co- …

    Cloud Business 6 May 23:48