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16th June 2011 Archive

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  • HP sues Oracle over Itanic withdrawal

    Oracle again insists Itanium is sinking

    Hewlett-Packard has sued Oracle, just like it threatened it might last week, over the software giant's refusal to support the Itanium processor with future releases of its database, middleware, and application software. The complaint, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Wednesday, asserts ten grievances against HPs …

    Servers 16 Jun 00:00

  • Man says he lost $500,000 in virtual currency heist

    Digital coins: As discreet as cash – and just as more vulnerable

    Leaders of the open-source virtual currency project known as Bitcoin say they have no way to verify one user's claim that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of digital coins were plucked from his computer earlier this week. Rumors of the heist have been swirling since Monday, when a Bitcoin user named Allinvain claimed 25, …

    Security 16 Jun 00:29

  • FTTN too expensive says Graeme Samuel

    Departing ACCC chair’s thoughts on the NBN

    Graeme Samuel, outgoing chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and sparring partner of former Telstra executive Phil Burgess, has said the fibre-to-the-node network once proposed by Telstra would have been a financial disaster for the government. In years of proposal and counter-proposal over broadband …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 01:00

  • LulzSec claims responsibility for CIA.gov outage

    Website goes down briefly

    LulzSec, the hacking and prankster collective that has attacked the US Senate, Sony, and the Fox and PBS television networks, has struck again, claiming it was behind an assault that took down the website for the Central Intelligence Agency. Attempts to access cia.gov on Wednesday afternoon were met with only limited success. …

    Security 16 Jun 01:23

  • Nintendo: no DVD, BD playback for Wii U

    Not Invented Here

    Nintendo's next-gen console, the Wii U, will, like its predecessor, have no DVD playback capabilities. It won't play Blu-ray Discs, either. Ninty boss Satoru Iwata confirmed the news during a Nintendo Q&A session following E3 last week. He said: "The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that …

    reghardware 16 Jun 05:00

  • Ten... Premium Android smartphones

    Product Round-up Hardcore handsets

    Android handsets have been steadily stealing Apple’s smartphone thunder for a while now, due in part to their variety – the range runs the gamut from cheap and (not very) cheerful to the heights of the very latest technology. This round-up pulls together the latter type, with the very best on offer from the major manufacturers. …

    reghardware 16 Jun 06:00

  • Google sees 15% speed boost with HTTP tweak

    Velocity All Google SSL connections now SPDY

    Google is now using its HTTP-boosting SPDY protocol to accelerate almost all SSL web traffic between Chrome browsers and its many web services, and according to Mike Belshe, an engineer on Google's Chrome team, the protocol is juicing performance by more than 15 per cent on average. "We do not have any property that is not …

    Networks 16 Jun 06:08

  • Microsoft warns on support scams

    Thousands still falling for old-school tech support swindle

    A survey from Microsoft reveals just how widespread the fake tech support call scam is becoming. The crooks cold-call people at home and claim to be calling from Microsoft or a well-known security firm and offering "free security checks". The software giant surveyed 7,000 computer users in the UK, Ireland, US and Canada and …

    Crime 16 Jun 08:59

  • 'Spongiforma squarepantsii' lifeform found in Borneo

    Bizarre rubbery sponge-shroom stuns jungle boffins

    Boffins have discovered a strange new type of spongy mushroom in the island rainforests of Borneo and decided to name it Spongiforma squarepantsii in homage to the well-known American cartoon featuring a talking sponge who lives under the sea. S squarepantsii was found by Professor Dennis Desjardin last year, and is a novel …

    Biology 16 Jun 09:19

  • Iranian pimp plates arse up Afghan car sales

    Buyers shun '39' numberplates of shame

    An Iranian pimp dubbed "39" has been fingered as the possible cause of a dramatic slump in car sales in the Afghan capital Kabul, Reuters reports. The Iranian in question apparently had a "flashy" motor whose number plate contained the number 39. This became his nickname and subsequently a signifier for "pimp". The term …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 09:33

  • Sony releases Android music streamer

    Subscribe to tunes for your smartphone

    Sony has released an Android app that will connect the smartphone OS to its Qriocity music shop, now the service is back online following the infamous PlayStation Network outage. The Qriocity app allows Android buffs to sign up to £3.99 or £9.99 monthly subscription plans which deliver "seven million" songs, streamed to their …

    reghardware 16 Jun 09:41

  • Duke Nukem publisher parts company with flacks over Twitter gaffe

    'Redner Group no longer represents our products'

    US PR company The Redner Group is no longer working with 2K Games after yesterday's controversial Tweet in which it threatened reviewers - despite the agency's immediate apology. The US-based flack firm slipped up on Twitter by Tweeting: "Too many went too far with their [Duke Nukem Forever] reviews… we r reviewing who gets …

    reghardware 16 Jun 09:53

  • Snapseed

    iOS App of the Week Tap'n'tweak your pictures

    I decided to dip back into photography apps this week, following the news that the iPhone 4 is now the second most popular source of photo uploads on Flickr – just a whisker behind Nikon’s D90 DSLR. Snapseed: finger-friendly image manipulation Snapseed is a brand new photo editing app – it's designed specifically for the …

    reghardware 16 Jun 10:00

  • MP demands government rethink on Digital Economy Act

    Calls for repeal of proposed web-blocking laws

    A Liberal Democrat MP is demanding a repeal of the Digital Economy Act having tabled an early day motion in Parliament yesterday, which so far has gained nine signatures from across the political spectrum. Julian Huppert wants the UK government to debate the issue in the House of Commons. Signatories include Labour MPs Tom …

    Government 16 Jun 10:29

  • Motorola Milestone 3 no longer bound for Blighty

    Brits miss out

    The Motorola Milestone 3 will not get a UK release, it has been claimed. Phone retailer Clove says it was told by Moto that there are no plans to bring the handset to UK telcos but admits this judgement may be subject to change. Just don't hold your breath. It is widely speculated that poor sales of the Milestone 2 could be …

    reghardware 16 Jun 10:37

  • Chris Chant: We've cut central gov websites

    Only 300-400 left after efficiency drive

    The Cabinet Office's interim executive director for digital government says that progress has been made on rationalising Whitehall's websites. Only 300 to 400 central government websites remain as a result of a Cabinet Office drive to reduce their number, Chris Chant has said. Speaking at the SmartGov Live event in London, he …

    Government 16 Jun 10:39

  • Woman puts shout-out for hitman on Facebook

    Offers 'a stack to kill my baby father'

    A Philadephia woman who decided it was a bright idea to publicly recruit a hitman on Facebook is behind bars after the intended victim's mum spotted her murderous solicitation. Eley London, 20, allegedly hit the social network on 23 May following a row with Corey Jerome White, the father of her one-year-old daughter. She …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 10:41

  • TeleWare makes telephony a little more cloudy

    Mobile phone, fixed infrastructure

    TeleWare has launched an enterprise MVNO that routes every call through the office PBX, reducing the mobile carrier to a bit pipe at best. The new offering – dubbed TeleWare Mobile, with all the panache typical of enterprise offerings – intercepts mobile calls at the operator to route them into the office systems, where all …

    VoIP 16 Jun 10:44

  • Facebooking juror gets 8 months

    Jailed over msg lol

    Joanne Fraill, the juror who admitted contacting an acquitted defendant during a drugs trial, has been sentenced to eight months in prison. The 40-year-old was a juror in a drugs trial when she contacted Jamie Sewart, who had been acquitted earlier in the trial. Sewart got two months, suspended for two years for contempt of …

    Law 16 Jun 10:48

  • Be happy in the cloud with the right SLA

    Fine print reveals providers' true intentions

    Cloud services are not perfect. They are run on computers, by technical people, for customers: a triumvirate of imperfection. It is easy to get very excited by the possibilities of the cloud, so when Flickr accidentally deletes 4,000 photographs, or hotmail and gmail vanish email data, it serves as a useful reminder of the …

    Cloud Business 16 Jun 11:00

  • UK.gov's 'public data' wagon spews out civil service lists

    Nevermind pub sec unrest, look at these pretty charts

    As disquiet over pay and pensions among civil servants throughout the land looks set to lead to strikes aplenty later this month, the Cabinet Office has been busy compiling lists about its public sector workers to underline its "transparency" pledge. Organisational charts on the UK Civil Service were published on the data.gov. …

    Government 16 Jun 11:00

  • Facebook's mega-billion-dollar bubble ... will it float?

    Only time will tell if stalker book valuation is valid

    So just how much is Facebook going to be worth by the time it eventually IPOs? Given that prediction, especially about the future, is very difficult, who knows? If we take recent movements we can still come up with any number we like: "As for the valuation spurts, Facebook was said to be worth $23bn in June 2010, nearly as …

    Financial News 16 Jun 11:02

  • X-51A hydrocarb scramjet flames out in second test

    Stupid hurricane keeps blowing out our match

    The quest for practical hypersonic aircraft (or missiles, if that's what you like) suffered another setback on Monday when the second X-51A hydrocarbon-burning scramjet test vehicle had its engine flame go out above the Pacific and was unable to restart. Baby just won't burn The X-51A is intended to achieve speeds of Mach 6 …

    Science 16 Jun 11:36

  • Lenovo chief says netbook's day is done

    Tablet to take 15 per cent of world PC biz

    Lenovo has called time on the netbook, stating that the mini-laptop's life is now "pretty much over". So said the firm's President and COO, Rory Read, in an interview with Dow Jones after confirming Lenovo will release 10in Android tablets worldwide within the next few months. There'll be an IdeaPad-branded consumer model and …

    reghardware 16 Jun 11:54

  • Cloud: Do Reg readers care?

    Reader Research Survey results

    Our thanks to all of you who took part in our recent El Reg Cloud survey. Our research partner Dale Vile of Freeform Dynamics has written up a study based on the results - it's free to download and no registration is required. Here are some choice cuts: Key findings range from the blindingly obvious: ‘…ambiguous and wildly …

    Cloud Business 16 Jun 12:00

  • Boffins brew up formula for consummate cuppa

    Enjoyment = Milk x Caffeine²

    Here at Reg Hardware, we rely on a regular supply of fresh tea in order to function properly. We'd like to think we're rather good at brewing our bevvies too, but apparently there is actually a science to it. Boffins at the University of Northumbria have come up with a mathematical formula that can be applied to produce the …

    reghardware 16 Jun 12:01

  • Mozilla pushes out final Firefox 5 test build

    Silence of the browser lambs

    Mozilla plans to release the next small-fry iteration of its Firefox browser next week. Ahead of that, a release candidate version of Firefox 5 landed yesterday. The open-source browser-maker lists the following tweaks to the latest test build: Added support for CSS animations; The Do-Not-Track header preference has been …

    Applications 16 Jun 12:03

  • LucasArts Day of the Tentacle

    Antique Code Show So long, suckers!

    Dr. Fred: I think I've made myself totally clear. Step one, find plans. Step two, save world. Step three, get out of my house! Let's get cracking! Day of the Tentacle: suck it and see Day of the Tentacle generates a lot of good will and happy memories. The reason this was my first choice for a retro review is because it’s …

    reghardware 16 Jun 12:29

  • DARPA issues call for notions on Starship-for-2111 plan

    'We want an organisation able to squash the USA like a bug'

    Wild-hare Pentagon boffinry bureau DARPA continues to forge ahead with its radical plan to get the first manned interstellar spaceships headed out of the solar system by the year 2111. The military tech agency yesterday issued a call for papers to be presented at the 100 Year Starship Study Symposium which is to be held in …

    Science 16 Jun 12:56

  • Site offers 24m PNRs from the past

    Emigration no escape from genealogists

    Ten Pound Poms, and other emigres, can now be traced via a genealogy site which has got access to passenger name lists from ships leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960. The early version of Passenger Name Records covers 24 million people. The entries include passenger names, ages, departure and destination ports as well as UK …

    Government 16 Jun 12:58

  • Germany opens cyberdefence centre to protect water, electricity

    Infrastructure the most important target for cybercriminals

    Germany today launched its new cyberdefence facility in Bonn, dedicated to defending the country's critical infrastructure, including its electricity and water supply. The facility is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe. The Cyber-Abwehrzentrum in Bonn is located in a securely fenced office block of the Federal …

    Enterprise Security 16 Jun 13:17

  • UK operators band together for NFC revenue

    Gang of three (not including Three)

    Vodafone, Telefonica UK and Everything Everywhere have banded together to create a clearing house for NFC applications, providing a single point of contact for cross network applications. The unnamed joint venture should launch before the end of the year, providing banks, merchants and advertisers with a single point of call …

    Mobile 16 Jun 13:25

  • Microsoft blesses elite brotherhood to service big customers

    The league of slightly less ordinary gentlemen

    Microsoft has anointed a secret guild of Large Account Resellers to service its biggest licensing customers in the UK. Under a re-classification, all 18 UK LARS will be authorised to sell to global customers, termed by the vendor as major accounts. But only a select band will qualify for the incentive programme kicking off on …

    Channel Register 16 Jun 13:43

  • When tuning the server, don't forget the network

    Polish up your performance

    It really doesn’t matter how you configure your servers, how many processor cores they have or how much memory: if the network doesn’t have the bandwidth to service their needs, they will seem slow. Users will complain, dissatisfaction will soar and customers will click off to the competition. Likewise, if the network …

    Data Centre 16 Jun 14:00

  • Facebook fuels Israeli cottage cheese insurgency

    Curdish revolt, Jews for cheeses, etc

    Facebook has once again been deployed in support of a Middle-Eastern insurgency, this time aimed at bringing down the tyrannical pricing of Israeli cottage cheese. Israelis are none too impressed that the cost of their favourite curd product has rocketed since the government loosened price controls last year. For example, the …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 14:03

  • O2 won't touch BlackBerry fondleslab for now

    User experience not up to snuff, apparently

    The BlackBerry PlayBook launched in the UK today. However, O2 has decided not to offer the tablet. The telco emailed interested punters that RIM's 7in, QNX OS-based slate will not be available after all, saying it had issues with the "end to end customer experience" offered by the gadget, Engadget reports. Perhaps it was sent …

    reghardware 16 Jun 14:17

  • BioWare latest hack victim

    Now more real lady lesbian bloggers than secure passwords on the internet

    Electronic Arts, owner of BioWare, is asking users of the Neverwinter Nights forums to re-register on the site after hackers stole several thousand accounts. An email from BioWare GM and Electronic Arts veep Aaryn Flynn said no credit card or social security numbers had been pinched: "However, hackers may have obtained your …

    Enterprise Security 16 Jun 14:18

  • Twin-screen LG smartphone spied

    Split keyboard splits opinion

    Check this bad boy out. Unearthed at an event in London this week, this mysterious LG handset features a slide-out Qwerty keyboard split in twain by a second display, seemingly used to launch apps. The yet-to-be announced LG device is branded with T-Mobile's logo and was demo'd among a selection of US-only handsets. A series …

    reghardware 16 Jun 14:21

  • Apple preps iOS social tool for muties

    Software in alpha, Johnny?

    Apple is investigating ways to make its iPhone more appealing to mutants. An Apple patent application posted recently describes a new 'find me a friend' social networking technology aimed at the genetically wounded. How else to explain the presence of a being with ill-matched eyes, missing nose and an ear on his or her chest …

    reghardware 16 Jun 14:57

  • Jaybird Freedom wireless Bluetooth buds

    Txt Take Heavy listening

    Daily Product reviews in 140 characters... Jaybird Freedom Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware - details here. ®

    reghardware 16 Jun 15:00

  • Latest Hubble Snaptastic goodness: Centaurus A

    Pic Thrilling peek at galactic neighbour's glories

    Boffinry chiefs in control of the mighty Hubble Space Telescope have released the latest imagery from its most advanced instrument, Wide Field Camera 3, of the relatively nearby galaxy Centaurus A - well known for its spectacular space dust clouds. Not too dusty. Bigger version here. Just 11 million lightyears away …

    Space 16 Jun 15:05

  • Obama's data.gov CIO quits White House

    Cloudy czar Vivek Kundra skips away from funding crisis

    The man behind the launch of the US government's Data.gov website, which is undergoing a funding crisis, is standing down from his job as federal CIO. The White House confirmed today that Vivek Kundra, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in March 2009, had handed in his notice with plans to take on a fellowship post at …

    Government 16 Jun 15:13

  • GeoTrust founders offer free SSL

    Ex-execs try to smack down rivals with free basic validation certificates

    Four former GeoTrust executives have returned to the SSL market after a five-year absence with the formation of a new company, AffirmTrust, which will compete with their alma mater. Expected to launch in July, AffirmTrust plans to kick off its marketing by giving away three-year basic validation certificates for free. Extended …

    Hosting 16 Jun 15:17

  • Can Big Blue survive another century?

    100 down, 100 to go

    Big Blue, which more than any other company defined the modern IT industry, turns 100 today. Such longevity is an accomplishment that most corporations can only aspire to, and there is no guarantee, as IBM's near-death experience in the early 1990s aptly demonstrated, that it will be relevant, much less viable, for the next …

    Servers 16 Jun 15:37

  • Give VDI the personal touch

    DV Settings anxiety can be serious

    Virtualising servers may be beset by technical challenges but rarely by political ones. When virtualising the desktop, however, things get far stickier. All the users suddenly becomes PC huggers unwilling to let go of their own little corner of the enterprise architecture. Amid the worries – that they will lose desktop …

    Desktop Virtualisation 16 Jun 16:00

  • Apple iOS 5 gets web 3D...for ads only

    iAds does WebGL

    Apple's iOS 5 mobile operating system will include support for WebGL, the emerging standard building hardware-accelerated 3D graphics with JavaScript. But WebGL will only be available to developers building iPhone and iPad advertisements via the company's iAd platform. Apple man Chris Marrin recently revealed this news on the …

    Mobile 16 Jun 17:24

  • Google urges background tab websites to throttle themselves

    Velocity Here, use this API

    Google has urged website developers to use Chrome's experimental Page Visibility API to reduce their sites' activities when they're not actually being viewed by browser users. Now included with the developer version of Chrome – and due for arrival in the beta version next week – the PageVisability API allows websites to …

    Developer 16 Jun 21:43

  • HP dubs Oracle 'bitter antagonist' in Itanic spat

    HP vs Oracle Anti-Hurd mentality

    Hindsight is always at least 20/20. But sometimes it is 20/15 or even 20/10. Maybe Hewlett-Packard should have bought the server and storage business from Sun Microsystems and argued to keep Solaris and let Oracle eat Java, which is what the company really wanted to get ahold of once it became clear that IBM was not going to buy …

    Servers 16 Jun 21:44

  • Telstra throws AU$800m at clouds

    Courts top end of town

    Telstra is spending over AU$800 million in cloud computing over the next five years to meet emerging demand in the enterprise space. The carrier claims use of its infrastructure cloud-based services has increased by 50 percent this year, while take-up of voice and video services hosted in the cloud is up 80 percent, delivering …

    Cloud Business 16 Jun 22:41

  • Well, that about wraps it up for the NBN

    Stop looking at South Korea, says Turnbull

    The opposition spokesperson for communications in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, has delivered a damning blow to the government’s plans for a National Broadband Network (NBN), citing international data to show declining demand for services at 100 Mbps. Since the NBN’s business plan assumes a fairly strong takeup of 100 Mbps …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 22:44

  • Firefox web 3D engine fosters image theft bug

    Microsoft stokes WebGL security fears

    An industry standard graphics engine recently added to Mozilla's Firefox browser allows attackers to surreptitiously steal any image displayed on a Windows or Mac computer just by visiting a booby-trapped website, security researchers have warned. The vulnerability, reported Thursday by UK-based Context Information Security, is …

    Security 16 Jun 23:01