24th May 2011 Archive

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• i3 touts sewer as NBN saviour

  Cue rehash of internet toilet jokes

  The i3 Group, this year dumped from building a fibre network in Brisbane, is back on the sales trail in Australia. The company has claimed that using utility ducts could slash 60 pecent off the deployment costs of the NBN and reduce deployment times by 50 percent. i3 is lobbying the Australian government against the use of …

  Telecoms 24 May 00:05

• LinkedIn cookie vulnerable, claims researcher

  The user is gone but the session lingers on

  Fresh from an IPO in which its bankers sent millions to pre-float insiders by low-balling its price, LinkedIn has been accused of slack security by Indian security Rishi Narang. Narang, who published his analysis of LinkedIn cookie handling here, identified two cookie handling problems: an SSL cookie is used without having its …

  Security 24 May 00:05

• Telstra turns on 4G

  On track for first to market

  The race to deploy 4G services in Australia (whether or not 4G truly exists) continues, with Telstra claiming first place. The carrier has flicked the switch on its initial LTE enabled base stations in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane. The Ericsson supplied 4G network is set to become the first LTE service to launch in …

  Mobile 24 May 01:30

• Google borgs fledgling price comparison site

  SparkBuy bought

  Google has acquired SparkBuy, a less-than-year-old price comparison site that was officially still in beta. SparkBuy announced the acquisition on its website, and its service is no longer available. "We are pleased as punch to announce that Sparkbuy has been acquired by Google," said SparkBuyers Dan Shapiro, Scot Haug, and …

  Financial News 24 May 02:33

• Citrix nabs Kaviza for skinny VDI

  VMware View in rear view mirror

  Citrix Systems has acquired Kaviza. a two-year-old startup with expertise in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) virtualization for Windows desktops. Kaviza was founded by some techies out of HP Labs, and Citrix was its Series A venture funding partner. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal comes …

  Virtualization 24 May 02:39

• Exploited Hotmail bug stole email without warning

  Attacks targeted email contents and contacts

  Microsoft has patched a bug in its Hotmail email service that attackers were exploiting to silently steal confidential correspondences and user contacts from unsuspecting victims. The vulnerability was actively being exploited using emails that contained malicious scripts, Trend Micro researcher Karl Dominguez said Monday. …

  Security 24 May 03:00

• Platform gets graphic with HPC cluster manager

  Supercomputing for Linux noobs

  Not everybody who needs to build a cluster wants to be a Linux expert. And that is why Platform Computing has slapped an all-encompassing Web-based graphical user interface onto the 3 release of its Platform HPC cluster management tool. Those who are Linux experts, of course, will be able to fly from command to command as they …

  HPC 24 May 04:00

• PlayStation Network breach will cost Sony $171m

  And counting

  The cost of a criminal intrusion that exposed sensitive data for more than 100 million Sony customers and resulted in a 23-day closure of the PlayStation Network will cost the company at least $171 million, executives said. The estimated cost doesn't included expenses related to any lawsuits that may be filed in response to the …

  Financial News 24 May 05:00

• Digital Stream DPS-1000 BBC iPlayer set-top box

  Review IPTV and DLNA for sub-par tellies

  It won't be long before all HDTVs incorporate BBC iPlayer, video-on-demand services like Lovefilm and Blinkbox, and the playback of content stored on USB- or local network-connected drives. Digital Stream's DPS-1000: iPlayer inside Heck, most sets from major brands released in the last year or two already do. Case in point …

  reghardware 24 May 06:00

• Catch of the Day hauls A$80m

  Dotcom millionaire renaissance alert

  James Packer's renewed interest in the tech space has netted local online deal pioneers Gabby and Hezi Leibovich A$80 million for their Catch of the Day and group buying offshoot Scoopon sites. With his old OneTel* wounds apparently healing, Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings joins Seek co-founder Andrew Bassat, New York …

  Channel Register 24 May 06:11

• SendSpace

  Android App of the Week Fling files from your phone

  Shunting large volumes of data from my phone isn’t something I usually need to do, but when the need arises SendSpace is an effective way of uploading large files for others to download.    Dashboard is simple and functional (left), the file browser is a nice bit of design (right) SendSpace is rather more than a file …

  reghardware 24 May 08:00

• Twitter buys Tweetdeck for $40m – report

  The Tweetening continues

  Microblogging service Twitter has reportedly purchased Tweetdeck, a client platform popular among Tweeters, for $40m. The deal has not yet been confirmed by the companies, but CNN – without naming its sources – reports that papers were signed yesterday. Speculation regarding a deal had been rife for weeks. The reported price …

  Financial News 24 May 08:14

• Judgment Day prophet resets doomsday clock

  Rapture now 21 October, insists unapologetic Harold Camping

  California preacher Harold Camping is unrepentant following his second unsuccessful attempt to predict Judgment Day, and now says true believers should pack their bags for ascension to heaven on 21 October. Camping's first stab at nailing the Rapture advised Christians to get their earthly affairs in order before 6 September …

  Bootnotes 24 May 08:43

• Steve Ballmer window-dresses Windows 8

  'A variety of different form factors' coming in 2012

  Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer confirmed yesterday that the company's "next generation of Windows systems" will be released in 2012. Interestingly, Ballmer also acknowledged the Windows 8 name, which up to now has been batted aside by Microsoft flacks, who have been keen to keep details about Redmond's next OS off the news …

  Operating Systems 24 May 09:00

• Isilon and a question of Big Data

  Interview Or was that ingestion?

  Xiotech technology VP Rob Peglar has moved to Isilon, now an EMC business, to become chief technology officer (CTO) for the Americas. We interviewed Rob and asked him questions that reveal quite a lot about Isilon's prospects, big data, the role of flash in scale-out filers, reduplication and Isilon, and what we should think …

  Channel Register 24 May 09:00

• Service Birmingham offshores IT jobs

  Joint venture firm moves back-office positions to India

  Service Birmingham, the joint venture with Capita that provides services for the UK's largest council, has confirmed that it plans to outsource a number of IT functions to India. A spokesman said the decision has already been made as part of its contract extension with the council, and will cover only people working on back- …

  CIO 24 May 09:04

• ExaGrid stuffs dedupe boost into hot new box

  Thirty per cent better performance

  ExaGrid has boosted its deduplication performance by 30 per cent with a new box. The EX13000E follows on from the 10TB capacity EX10000E and holds up to 13TB of data. In ExaGrid's 10-node, globally deduplicating grid configuration the maximum capacity is now 130TB – up from 100TB. ExaGrid says this about its single-node …

  Storage 24 May 09:10

• 3D fad fades for Yanks

  Jack Sparrow x 3 != $$$

  Americans may be turning their backs on 3D movies. The new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, has done well at the box office, in the US and elsewhere, but the 3D version has taken less money than other recent releases have. According to analyst Richard Greenfield, of New York investment house BTIG Research, …

  reghardware 24 May 09:13

• Data General's Tom West dies

  Obit The man who put the soul into a new machine

  Tom West, who created Data General's Eclipse 32-bit mini and was immortalised in Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Soul Of A New Machine, has died. Credited with helping to save Data General (DG) after DEC announced its VAX supermini in 1976, Joseph Thomas West III was born on 22 November 1939 and died at his home on …

  CIO 24 May 09:26

• Making English injunctions apply in Scotland will be easy – expert

  Bad news for Scottish publishers

  Extending English injunctions to Scotland would be a "small step" that could result in Scottish publishers facing contempt of court charges, according to one legal expert. England and Wales court orders are not directly enforceable in Scotland but a Scottish court could extend the ban if it was asked to said David Woods, a …

  Law 24 May 09:30

• ISS 'nauts touch down in Kazakhstan

  Cady Coleman's hair back under full gravitational control

  The International Space Station's Expedition 27 came to an end yesterday as Dmitry Kondratyev, Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli (pictured left to right, below) departed the orbiting outpost after 157 days in space. The trio's Russian Soyuz TMA-20 undocked at 21:35 GMT. Commander Kondratyev backed the spacecraft to 600 feet from …

  Space 24 May 09:52

• Windows on the Desktop? There's a group policy for that

  Managing by the book

  Desktops are important and need managing with the same care as servers. If you are using Windows many of the tools you need are built into Active Directory, which lets you define individual users and computers along with their roles and the groups they fall into. This division makes managing Windows PCs relatively easy. The …

  Desktop Strategy 24 May 10:00

• Fracking fears are 'hot air': MPs

  Just keep an eye on it

  A Parliamentary enquiry into shale gas exploration in the UK has decided it should be regulated, but not banned. Many of the safety concerns were overblown and, in the words of the Greener-than-thou select committee chairman Tim Yeo MP: "Hot air". Environmentalists claimed that "fracking", or rock fracturing, one of the older …

  Energy 24 May 10:04

• Foxconn closes iPad factory after explosion deaths

  Investigation underway, Wall Street shrugs

  Part of a Foxconn factory that produces Apple's iPad device has been closed, after three workers at the plant were killed in an explosion blamed on combustible dust in a duct last Friday. According to Reuters, the manufacturer's parent company Hon Hai Precision said in a stock exchange filing that it had temporarily shut down …

  PCs & Chips 24 May 10:13

• Osama alive scam snowballs on Twitter

  Elvis-style bunkum entraps clueless tweeps

  Fraudsters wasted little time running scams based on the death of Osama bin Laden, so it's no big surprise that they are now running cons based on the conspiracy theory that the former head of al Qaida is alive. Tweets relaying the false news that the uber-terrorist is alive supposedly point to a non-existent news story on CNN …

  Crime 24 May 10:31

• Ofcom pricks Shard's 'biggest erection' boast

  Regulator engages in vigorous mast-urbation

  Ofcom, the UK's telecommunications regulator, has told the company raising London's latest erection, the Shard, that two of the country's tallest TV transmission masts stand more proudly skyward than the so-called "vertical city" does. The 'Shard-on', designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano and currently under …

  reghardware 24 May 10:32

• Sony brings multi-gadget gaming to PSP and PS3

  Carry on at your convenience

  Sony is launching a PSP Remaster series, porting selected PSP titles to the PS3, some with support for stereoscopic 3D, and upgraded to HD. Not merely an exercise in re-purposing games, the series will allow gamers to share saved game data between devices, allowing games to stop playing on the PS3 and begin playing on the PSP …

  reghardware 24 May 10:43

• Much better wireless power transmission possible - boffins

  Cars yes, Heinlein broadcast-juice 'broomsticks' not yet

  Engineering boffins in the States say they're on the track of a method to hugely improve the transmission of electrical power without wires. The developments, reportedly, could mean that it wouldn't be just laptops or smartphones charging up wirelessly - much more powerful devices like cars might also get their power without …

  Physics 24 May 10:44

• Euro report slates wireless comms, recommends smoke and mirrors

  Comment Listening to our inner magnet

  A Council of Europe committee has given voice to various trick cyclists and concluded that rural schools should be cut off from the internet, and that heliographs are the mobile technology of the future. The report comes from the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, and recommends that …

  Mobile 24 May 11:05

• BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

  For the good of the customers, of course

  BT reserves, and makes use of, the right to remotely detect all devices connected to LANs owned by its broadband customers – for their own good, of course. BT Broadband customers can expect to have their network checked any time the operator feels it needs to take a peek to help it provide the service, or when the safety of …

  Data Networking 24 May 11:23

• Ofnuke: UK is not Japan

  Nuke inspectors rebuff Chicken Littles

  So that's that, then. The UK's nuclear safety watchdog last week published a list of recommendations following the Fukushima accident. It received rather less press than the hysterical reports from Japan. There are plenty of recommendations, but overall the inspectors conclude that Britain has very different kinds of reactors …

  Energy 24 May 11:49

• Modern Warfare 3 teaser trailer reveals terror on the tube

  London's burning

  Activision has released the first full length trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, confirming rumours that the game will be set in familiar cities such as London and New York. Here's the video: May the hype continue. I wonder if there'll be another controversial level like the Russian airport mission in MW's …

  reghardware 24 May 11:51

• WTF is... 4G

  Not LTE, for starters...

  The great thing about standards, as some wit once said, is that there are so many to choose from. Mobile phones are afflicted worse than most technology – a multiplicity of standards, nested within one another like a messy set of Russian dolls filled with alphabet soup. The 'generations' of mobile networks are fairly loose, …

  reghardware 24 May 12:02

• LinkedIn slashes cookie lifespan after research exposes security flaws

  Token gesture

  LinkedIn said it would reduce the persistence of cookies it uses to identify users of the business-focused social networking site following the discovery of security issues with the site that create a possible means for fraudsters to hijack profiles. Security researcher Rishi Narang discovered that LinkedIn session cookies are …

  Enterprise Security 24 May 12:29

• ESA: British Skylon spaceplane seems perfectly possible

  Wizzo robot runway rocketplane cleared to proceed

  Good news for spaceplane fanciers today, as a new report issued by the European Space Agency (ESA) says that "no impediments or critical items have been identified" which could block continuing development of the radical British-designed "Skylon" orbital craft. Many Reg readers will be familiar with the Skylon, modern-day …

  Space 24 May 12:50

• Infosmack is 100!

  The Really Epic Show

  OMG it's Epic! Yes, Infosmack, our favourite enterprise tech podcast, is 100 episodes old today. And hosts Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley, with the Diva of Disruptive Technologies, Christina Weil have pulled out all the stops for a Really Epic show, with special emphasis on Cisco. Special guests this week are Robin Harris of …

  Infosmack 24 May 13:00

• €1bn handout from the EU targets ambient nagware and robot pets

  'Hello. I am your cyborg buddy. You look fat'

  The EU is throwing an eye-watering €1bn of public funds to bankroll some of the most whimsical technology projects ever envisaged – for a decade. A shortlist of six applicants includes talking pet robots, and ambient low-power sensors that provide health tips and "emotional" advice. The program is called FET, and is funded by …

  Government 24 May 13:09

• SNIA specifies SSD performance test

  Fresh out of the box plus steady state

  The SNIA has devised a test spec for solid state drives that tests both their initial state and their later sustained performance. Will the SSD manufacturers use it and reveal their performance drop-off? When SSDs are first bought and fresh out of the box (FOB), their performance is much higher as there is no need for write- …

  Storage 24 May 13:35

• Sarko to Schmidt & co: 'You can't escape' net regulation

  G8 presidency gives France platform to sound off on net rules

  French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country has the G8 presidency this year, called for greater regulation of the internet today. Speaking at the e-G8 Forum in Paris, Sarkozy said more rules to police the net were needed to, among other things, help protect copyright law and prevent children from seeing harmful material …

  Government 24 May 13:39

• Freebie Blackhole exploit kit appears on file-sharing websites

  Good news for cybercriminals: their costs are going down

  A free version of the Blackhole exploit kit has appeared online in a development that radically reduces the entry-level costs of getting into cybercrime. The Blackhole exploit kit, which up until now would cost around $1,500 for an annual licence, creates a handy way to plant malicious scripts on compromised websites. Surfers …

  Enterprise Security 24 May 13:56

• Student books Vegas trip with Twitter mood detection app

  PHP on Azure prize winner

  Ben Waine, a self described "student ninja” who scooped first prize at the PHP Benelux Azure coding contest on May 21, has announced his victory on Twitter in a fittingly dignified and restrained manner: “Vegas baby yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!!! Thanks to the @PHPAzureContest team who gave advice and support. #dpc11” But before we …

  Cloud Developer 24 May 14:15

• MS announces Windows Phone 7.1

  Mango out in the autumn

  It's official: Windows Phone 7.1 - aka 'Mango' - will be out in the autumn. Well, that's when the first phones should get it, but as we've seen with the - still ongoing - WinPho 7 copy'n'paste update, it may be a while before every vendor's handset is switched over. Microsoft discussed a lot of Mango's 'under the hood' …

  reghardware 24 May 14:42

• Microsoft to up stereo 3D rendering on Xbox 360

  A little spec-ulation

  Microsoft is set to introduce higher-resolution stereoscopic 3D to the Xbox 360 this year. A source familiar with the console's development revealed the news to Eurogamer, claiming a full announcement is due at E3. The insider also reckons the Xbox 360 is "more capable than the PlayStation 3 of doing stereo, assuming you don' …

  reghardware 24 May 14:49

• Dell intros world's thinnest 15in laptop PC

  You-know-who's version is thinner

  Dell has taken the wraps of a 15in Sandy Bridge-based notebook that, it claims, is the "thinnest 15in PC on the planet". The metal-clad XPS 15z draws immediate parallels with Apple's aluminium-formed MacBook Pro. But by using "PC" rather than "notebook", Dell has tried to avoid the inevitable comparison. It has to. Apple's …

  reghardware 24 May 15:21

• US and Russian smallpox stocks spared the chop

  Another three years for vital vaccine research

  The US and Russia have secured themselves another three years to carry out vital research into the smallpox virus, after the World Health Organization's (WHO) annual shindig rejected calls for the immediate destruction of the countries' variola stockpiles. Smallpox was effectively eradicated over 30 years ago, and for 25 years …

  Biology 24 May 15:28

• Competition Czar weighs into copyright, trademarks

  Barnier BREINstorms on IPR

  The European Commission has published its blueprint on IP, in a document with suggestions for orphan works, music licensing, trademarks, counterfeiting and online liabilities. The Commission wants multi-territory licensing of music rights, rather than forcing users of copyright (in the traditional sense) to negotiate country …

  Government 24 May 15:33

• Super Micro whiteboxes Ethernet switches

  Well, they're grey boxes, actually

  If you're willing to go to whitebox server maker Super Micro for your motherboards and complete systems, then you're probably willing to consider going all the way and get your network adapters and switches from the company as well. That seems to be the thinking at Super Micro, as the company punts three Ethernet switches. …

  Data Networking 24 May 15:41

• Engineering student cracks major riddle of the universe

  Aussie undergrad, 22, finds the 'missing mass'

  An engineering undergraduate in Australia has made a major step forward in solving one of the greatest riddles of the universe: that is, where most of it is. Boffins know from observing the universe that it must have a certain amount of mass, otherwise it would have failed to hold itself together as well as it has. Argument …

  Physics 24 May 15:45

• Microsoft squeezes out Windows Phone Mango details

  Acer, Fujitsu, ZTE sign up

  Microsoft's next update to Windows Phone ties handsets even more tightly into the company's online services while stitching together Facebook with Redmond's email and instant messaging. Codenamed Mango, the next Windows Phone operating system upgrades Hubs for Office and Xbox, the company said in a Tuesday webcast. The new …

  Mobile 24 May 17:03

• Cray XK6 super mates Opterons with Nvidia GPU workhorses

  Ceepie-geepies all around

  Supercomputer maker Cray has finally jumped on the GPU coprocessor bandwagon, and it looks like someone is going to have to hitch Belgian draft horses to that wagon and reinforce its axles once the XK6 hybrid super starts shipping in the fall. Cray made a name for itself as a provider of vector processors back in the 1970s and …

  HPC 24 May 17:28

• Opera rolls new Mini onto iPhone and iPad

  Pan and zoom juiced

  Opera has released a new version of its Opera Mini browser for the iPhone and the iPad, claiming "faster and smoother" pan and zoom and offering new buttons for sharing links via services such as Twitter and Facebook. The first major upgrade to the bandwidth-friendly browser since it arrived on the iPhone to much fanfare in …

  Applications 24 May 17:57

• New hack on Comodo reseller exposes private data

  And then there were four

  Yet another official reseller of SSL certificate authority Comodo has suffered a security breach that allowed attackers to gain unauthorized access to data. Brazil-based ComodoBR is at least the fourth Comodo partner to be compromised this year. In March, the servers of a separate registration authority were hacked by attackers …

  Enterprise Security 24 May 19:58

• Dear Dell and Microsoft: You're not Apple

  Open...and Shut DNA transplant not an option

  Dell has always been a first-class choice for budget-minded CIOs. The company grew to prominence by shaving everything – including R&D costs – from the bill of materials for its utilitarian, corporate machines. Today, despite four years of attempts to invigorate its brand with consumers, Dell remains a consumer-computing laggard …

  CIO 24 May 20:27

• Apple iPhone police approve 500,000th app

  Farts, birds, and billions of bucks

  Love it or loathe it, Apple's iOS App Store is a roaring success – so much so that its App Store Police have just approved their 500,000th app. This startling stat comes from the app-watchers at 148Apps, who are quick to point out that there are not a half-million apps in the App Store, rather that there have been that many …

  reghardware 24 May 20:51

• Fedora 15: More than just a pretty interface

  Review GNOME emerges from last century

  The Red Hat–backed Fedora Project has released the latest version of its Linux-based operating system, Fedora 15, into the wild. Despite the similarities of the two leading Linux-based PC operating systems, Fedora has long played second fiddle to Ubuntu in the minds of many Linux fans. Now – for the first time – there are …

  Operating Systems 24 May 20:52

• Google opens tiny window onto Baltic Sea-cooled data center

  Inside the newspaper destruction metaphor

  Google has released a video showing off the sea water–based cooling system used by its new data center on the southern coast of Finland. Due to go live later this year, the company's Hamina, Finland, data center was built on the site of a former paper mill – how's that for a metaphor? – and as previously revealed, the facility …

  Servers 24 May 21:03

• Researcher blasts Siemens for downplaying SCADA bug

  Threats 'affect every industrialized nation'

  A security researcher who voluntarily canceled a talk about critical holes in Siemens' industrial control systems has criticized the German company for downplaying the severity of his findings. “The vulnerabilities are far reaching and affect every industrialized nation across the globe,” Dillon Beresford wrote in an email …

  Enterprise Security 24 May 23:06

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