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4th July 2011 Archive

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  • HP plans to measure girth, thrust of channel pitches

    Vendor deploys iQuote to improve bid times and attach rates

    HP will measure reseller pitch rates through the global rollout of the iQuote system, allowing it to market more aggressively or shift promotions. Developed by Tim Moyle, director at channelcentral.net – former manager at CCD – the tool was piloted by Westcoast and Avnet but has gone live across chunks of its PC, server and …

    Channel Register 4 Jul 08:00

  • Atmos 2.0 now shipping

    Cloud folder on your Windows desktop

    EMC is now shipping its boosted cloud storage: it's faster, more efficient, and a drag 'n' drop interface for Windows users makes it look like just another folder. Version 2.0 of the Atmos software is claimed to be 500 percent faster than v1. For protection it stores parts of objects, segments, across distributed Atmos boxes …

    Infrastructure 4 Jul 08:00

  • Plucky Czechs force Street View changes

    Slurpmobiles reined in by Prague authorities

    Google's Street View cars will soon be back on the streets of the Czech Republic after the data protection registrar forced changes on the search and advertising giant. Google was forced to suspend the creepy fleet of picture-taking, Wi-Fi slurping vehicles because of objections from the Office for Personal Data Protection. …

    Government 4 Jul 08:01

  • UPDATED McGregor set to take control at Azlan

    Networking distie to enthrone new boss

    Azlan has concluded the search for a new boss with former Avnet Technology Solutions exec Colin McGregor set to take on the role, The Register can confirm. McGregor, who was EMEA director of enterprise at Avnet until he left last September - the first in a number of departures as the distributor integrated the Bell …

    Channel Register 4 Jul 08:11

  • Earth orbit for £1,000? You must be joking

    Amateur boffins vie for 'very nearly' impossible N-Prize

    We're obliged to all those readers who sent in suggestions as to just what El Reg's new Special Projects Bureau should be doing with its multi-billion pound budget and mountain fab bunker complex, and the first thing that caught our eye was the N-Prize – "a challenge to launch an impossibly small satellite into orbit on a …

    SPB 4 Jul 08:26

  • Pharmacy spam disguised as Google+ invites

    Cock-like-a-rock July 4th specials spamvertised

    Scammers have wasted little time in exploiting the launch of Google+ to mount a spam campaign ultimately designed to promote penis pills and other unlicensed pharmaceutical sales from dodgy websites. Supposed Google+ invitations intercepted by net security firm Sophos last weekend actually point to online pharmacies. The …

    Spam 4 Jul 08:28

  • Terrafugia flying car gets road-safety exemptions

    Forget about the car in front, it's the car above

    The Terrafugia Transition "roadable" aircraft – a stylish combination of light aeroplane and car – has been granted useful exemptions by the US Department of Transportation. It's a car. It can fly. What else do you want? Well, VTOL, silence, robopilot ... Following representations by Terrafugia to the National Highway …

    Science 4 Jul 09:00

  • Fox News tweets hacked to show Obama death stories

    Foxy pranksters outfox Fox for lulz

    A Twitter account maintained by Fox News has been hacked to post fake "Obama assassinated" stories. The @foxnewspolitics account was seized to post a succession of bogus updates (example below) on the false story that Obama was shot and killed while supposedly campaigning at a Ross' restaurant in Iowa. The obviously …

    ID 4 Jul 09:14

  • EU cloud data can be secretly accessed by US authorities

    US-owned companies bound by Patriot Act, says Microsoft

    Personal information belonging to EU users of US-owned cloud-based services could be shared with US law enforcers without the user being informed, Microsoft has said. The software giant said it could not guarantee that it would not have to hand over EU customers' data on a new cloud service it has developed whilst keeping …

    Law 4 Jul 09:27

  • Aussie retailer accuses UK shops of HDMI 'scam'

    Four quid job just as good as a £100 one

    Want a free HDMI cable? Buy a telly from either John Lewis or Currys and you'll get one - not from those retailers but from upstart Aussie e-tailer Kogan. The online store claimed "some retailers have decided that it’s appropriate to trick unsuspecting UK shoppers into thinking a £100 HDMI cable is better than a £4 one", so it …

    reghardware 4 Jul 09:27

  • Spooks made 1,061 bugging errors in 2010

    MI5 accidentally spied on 134 people they didn't mean to

    MI5 wrongly collected subscriber data on 134 telephone numbers as a result of a software error, according to interception of communications commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy's annual report. A spreadsheet formatting error caused the service to apply for data on the identity of telephone numbers ending in 000, rather than the …

    Government 4 Jul 09:44

  • Facebook's 'awesome' plan to hook up with Skype?

    MicroSoftFaceSkypeBook vidchat deal rumoured

    Facebook is reportedly about to launch a new video chat product powered by Microsoft-owned Skype. The move follows on from the company founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments last week that Facebook would have an "awesome" new feature to shout about on 6 July. TechCrunch, citing an insider with knowledge of the partnership, is now …

    VoIP 4 Jul 09:56

  • Anti-censorship Radiohead tap into online Chinese market

    Not so Paranoid Android really, then

    Radiohead have launched their own microblog in China, even though the British band oppose the country's human rights and censorship policies. Associated Press reported yesterday that the rock group had created a page on the Twitter-like "weibo" website, which is run by Chinese online media outfit Sina Corp. So far, Radiohead …

    Music and Media 4 Jul 10:22

  • Can Fox break the power of Army, Navy, RAF chiefs?

    Analysis Top brasshats set to be booted out of Whitehall

    Last week, the Defence Secretary announced the publication of the Levene report into the way the UK Ministry of Defence is run: and Dr Fox stated that he agrees with all the recommendations it makes. The MoD has formally announced that it "will publish a blueprint setting out all the major changes the Department is embarked on …

    Government 4 Jul 10:24

  • Sony to launch PlayStation 4 in 2012, say moles

    Taking the initiative?

    Sony will begin producing the PlayStation 4 -equipped with Kinect-style movement control tech - by the end of this year, and will launch it in 2012, it has been claimed. The rumours come from sources within Taiwan's component production world, who told Digitimes that Sony is readying a surprise launch of a new console, with a …

    reghardware 4 Jul 10:31

  • Apple v Samsung: Jobs strikes back

    Tech giants swap legal bitchslaps

    Last week Samsung went to the International Trade Commission to try to ban the import of Apple's phones into the US. In response Apple has now tried to stop the sale of four specified Samsung handsets on claims that they infringe Apple patents. Jobs's boys went to court on Friday to seek an injunction to stop sales of Infuse …

    Law 4 Jul 10:44

  • Pissed-off elves bombard Icelandic town with rocks

    Musician attempts to placate meddling huldufólk

    The good burghers of the Icelandic town of Bolungarvik have intervened to prevent further action by elves who are evidently unhappy they weren't consulted about the construction of an anti-avalanche barrier. Bolungarvik recently suffered a bombardment of rocks during "routine dynamiting" on the barrier, with fist-sized …

    Bootnotes 4 Jul 10:57

  • Scotland Yard still have no idea why their network fell over

    Plods' finest IT brains baffled by 'major issue'

    The Metropolitan Police Service is still trying to get to the bottom of the outage that prevented staff accessing some IT services nearly a month after it first emerged. The "major network issue" surfaced on 9 June preventing coppers from accessing a number of ICT services including printer services and systems access for MPS …

    Policing 4 Jul 11:13

  • Microsoft inks Bing deal with Baidu

    Google slipping in China as Redmond snuggles the dragon

    China-based Baidu has reportedly inked an English-language search agreement with Microsoft's Bing. According to Reuters, the search deal will help Baidu improve its market presence outside of China, while Microsoft hopes to beef up its online footfall in the People's Republic. Baidu is the leading search engine in China. In …

    Networks 4 Jul 11:24

  • Telcos: up your prices, lose customers

    Networking switching stats show effect of tariff tweaks

    Mobile providers rely on their customer base, yet unlike hardware manufacturers, developing a loyalty is difficult. With so much competition, increasing prices can have a significant impact and send customers sniffing elsewhere. Mobile tech website Ken's Tech Tips tracked the popularity of the UK's major mobile operators by …

    reghardware 4 Jul 11:34

  • WikiLeaks sues Visa, Mastercard over 'financial blockade'

    Unleashes pack of slavering Scandinavian lawyers

    WikiLeaks is suing Visa and MasterCard over their decision to suspend payment facilities for the whistleblowing website in the wake of last year's US diplomatic cables release row. The whistleblowing site and Datacell, a service provider assisting WikiLeaks, are jointly suing the credit card giants over allegedly running an " …

    Law 4 Jul 11:40

  • Logicalis coughs $34m for Netarx

    Integrator acquires managed services goodness

    Logicalis has paid $34m for US IT services biz and fellow Cisco Gold partner Netarx. The Detroit-based firm, founded in 1997, employs 220 staff and has annual revenues of roughly $60m built on the back of managed services, data centre and collaborative IT solutions. "This acquisition builds on the already strong position held …

    Channel Register 4 Jul 11:44

  • Samsung NS310 netbook

    Review There's life in the old dog yet

    Will the tablet kill off the netbook? Probably not. Granted the netbook has never quite fulfilled its promise due to a combination of prices that went up with specifications that didn’t. Even so, I’ve yet to find a fondleslab that can truly replace my Windows 7/Ubuntu dual-booting Samsung N140. Lap it up: Samsung's NS310 …

    reghardware 4 Jul 12:00

  • When Oracle bought Pillar for £zilch

    Comment Is Pillar's fate its opportunity?

    It was a telling omission when Oracle introduced a storage guy to talk about why Pillar Data was such a great acquisition. It wasn't Mike Workman, Pillar's CEO and founder, but Phil Bullinger, Oracle's SVP for Disk Storage. Contrast that with Dell parading Phil Soran, Compellent's CEO, when it bought that company, or HP …

    Storage 4 Jul 12:18

  • Boffins fix dead satellite using 'dirty hack' in space

    Eat that, LulzSec

    Engineers and ground controllers at the European Space Agency are overjoyed to announce that they have managed to bring an unexpectedly defunct, critical science satellite orbiting the Earth back to life – by hacking it. Forget user logins, this is real hacking The satellite in question is known as "Samba", and is one of …

    Space 4 Jul 12:34

  • Custom speakers that should be seen as well as heard

    Orna-mental design

    Audio speakers come in various shapes and sizes, but it's rare to find sets as funky as these. The speakers, built to order by British designer Richard Grant, are made from Polyurethane glass fibre resin and come in a variety of ornamental packages, including a rocket-like droid and a Ghanaian ritual mask. The latter feature …

    reghardware 4 Jul 13:25

  • Nissan backs off from Goodwood reverse-race car stunt

    Arse-backwards attempt kyboshed

    Organisers of the Goodwood Festival of Speed have stopped Nissan's attempt to drive one of its jalopies up the Hill Climb course backwards. The Japanese manufacturer did manage to send a stuntman in a Nissan up the track on two wheels. But organisers put the kybosh on the reverse attempt on safety grounds. The idea – which …

    Bootnotes 4 Jul 13:28

  • Apple site hacked 'by LulzSec' - report

    No suggestion of snags at iTunes, though

    Hackers claim to have broken into Apple's systems before posting a list of names and password hashes online. The FT, in a story careful to make a number of caveats, attributes the hack on what would appears to be Apple's business intelligence unit on infamous and recently disbanded prankster hackers LulzSec. None of this has …

    Enterprise Security 4 Jul 13:31

  • BBC mulls talent Twitter ban to prevent storyline spoilers

    Updated Loose-lipped thesps' stealing own thunder blunders

    A ban on the use of Twitter and other public forums is being considered by BBC bosses, in an effort to prevent stars and writers from talking about details of the broadcaster's confidential upcoming productions online. The Guardian, which cites senior sources, reports that BBC execs are mulling over the possibility of tweaking …

    Entertainment 4 Jul 13:52

  • What's the point of data centre orchestration?

    Baton twirlers start here

    Flipping the script on the 80/20 rule is the idea of data centre orchestration. It promises to take 80 per cent of the time IT departments spend fire-fighting and reallocate it to service delivery – putting big smiles on board members' faces and increasing job satisfaction in the IT department. Good luck with that, you might …

    Data Centre 4 Jul 14:00

  • Google trebles its force of lobbyists ahead of FTC probe

    Chocolate Factory insists it has 'a strong story to tell'

    Google now has 18 lobbying firms on its books, after it hired 12 more companies late last week to help fight a recent antitrust investigation kicked off by the US Federal Trade Commission. A Mountain View spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday that it had "a strong story to tell about our business" and said Google had "sought the …

    Business 4 Jul 14:15

  • Stieg Larsson: Oxfam's number one best seller

    Author most commonly given away in binliners is Dan Brown

    The author Brits are most likely to hand to charity store Oxfam is Dan Brown - the man responsible for turgid Vatican romp the Da Vinci Code. The charity's annual list puts Dan Brown in the top spot for the third year running. Climbing from eighth place to number three isTop Gear presenter and curly-haired clown Jeremy …

    Entertainment 4 Jul 14:42

  • Pacific rare-earth discovery: Actually just gigatonnes of dirt

    Take a lot of acid and it might seem valuable

    There has been a lot of excitement over a recent paper by Japanese researchers who have discovered billions – hundreds of billions – of tonnes of rare earths under the Pacific Ocean. Those rare earths, you will recall, are essential to so much of modern technology, from those sweet little earbuds of your iPod and the magnets in …

    Science 4 Jul 15:19

  • Top level domain explosion could wreak MAYHEM on NET

    Suppose you owned '1'. Now you can set up 127.0.0.1 ...

    A plan to populate the internet with hundreds or thousands of new top-level domains has security researchers pondering some of the unintended consequences that could be exploited by online criminals. Some of the scenarios aren't pretty. Consider the mayhem that might result from addresses that end in “exchange,” “mailserver,” “ …

    Hosting 4 Jul 15:36

  • IBM chases Itanium shops with 'Breakfree' deals

    Big Sam's big 'Thank You' to Larry

    When you live in a glass house – like IBM does, both metaphorically and literally – you don't throw stones. So when Oracle suddenly pulled the plug on future software development for the Itanium processor back in March, Big Blue didn't say squat about the situation. But the company's top brass have been taking pot-shots at the …

    Servers 4 Jul 18:00

  • Operation Antisec lames out again

    Public data posted in Pirate Bay facepalm

    A Twitter account, some already-public data, some Apple survey server admin logins: the more people get on board the “Antisec” campaign, the more laughable their achievements become. The group managed a brief flurry yesterday by hijacking a Fox News Twitter account to circulate an “Obama assassinated” rumour, and picked up …

    Security 4 Jul 22:40

  • Ex-BigPond chief uploaded to Quickflix

    As Quickflix picks up BigPond’s DVD rental business

    The former head of Telstra Big Pond and Telstra Media, Justin Milne, will resurface as deputy chairman of Quickflix. Milne's appointment is expected to be announced today. The announcement comes hot on the heels of Quickflix's impressive coup in snapping up Telstra's BigPond Movies DVD rental business. Telstra has advised …

    Business 4 Jul 23:01

  • Amazon swallows UK online bookseller

    The Book Depository assimilated by a Borg depository

    The world of online book retailing is about to get that little bit less competitive, with Amazon announcing that it’s reached agreement to buy UK seller The Book Depository. Perhaps recognizing the importance of the brand, the 900-pound gorilla has faithfully promised that it’s not going to squash The Book Depository brand. …

    Business 4 Jul 23:30