The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

13th July 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • AFACT escalating threats against ISPs: reports

    Talk loudly and carry a bigger stick

    Australia’s “copyright versus the Internet” battle, which had become quiet as rights-holders prepared their High Court appeal against the iiNet trial decision, has flared in fine style, with rights-holders’ rep the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) escalating its threats against Internet service providers. …

    Law 13 Jul 00:01

  • -

    -

    -

    Odds and Sods 13 Jul 00:40

  • Coke cans used to build sound-wave 'superlens'

    French boffins in tinny acoustic focus triumph

    Focused sound waves aren’t just the domain of children fooling around with long-distance microphones. They’re also important in ultrasound machines, and in biomedical laboratories, for “acoustic actuators” using sound to sort cells. Sound focusing has its limits, however – the diffraction limit, roughly one wavelength of the …

    Physics 13 Jul 01:00

  • VMware taxes your virtual memory

    Analysis The hidden cost of vSphere 5

    The rumored feeds and speeds of the latest ESXi 5.0 hypervisor at the heart of VMware's just-announced vSphere 5.0 server virtualization stack were pretty much on target and something that customers will applaud. But no one had heard about VMware's new pricing model for the vSphere 5.0 software, which attaches a fee to the use …

    Infrastructure 13 Jul 04:11

  • Apple's chief patent lawyer exits, says report

    A Chip for a BJ

    Apple's top patent lawyer will soon exit the Cupertinian mothership, according to reports. As is usual with such high-profile departures, the question arises: did he jump, or was he pushed? The imminent departure of Richard "Chip" Lutton was reported on Tuesday by Reuters, citing the ever-loquacious "sources familiar with the …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 04:25

  • Marathon for iPad

    iGamer 'Frog blast the vent core!'

    To hear PC gamers talk about how first-person shooters don't work on consoles because the machines don't have mice, you'd think that's how it always was. Not a bit of it. A lot of us playing in the early to mid-1990s on the first FPS games made do with just two handfuls of keys. Marathon: back from the early 1990s in all its …

    reghardware 13 Jul 06:00

  • Videotree VideoSpa bathroom TV

    Review Spray and display

    Forget 3D TV and Internet-connected sets, de rigueur this season is a waterproof TV for your bathroom. Admittedly, the Videospa is primarily intended for posh hotels and overly moist gyms, but developer Videotree is also making a bit of a push into what it refers to as ‘innovative designer residential homes’. Wet set: …

    reghardware 13 Jul 06:00

  • Yell and Microsoft ink SMB deal

    Doesn't matter that Yell previously sold itself to Google

    Yell and Microsoft have signed a "broad strategic alliance" aimed at small and medium businesses. The directory company, which claims 1.3 million SMB customers, will flog MS products that include Office 365 and small business comms packages. Microsoft will help with Yell's move to the cloud and will include its results on the …

    Cloud Business 13 Jul 07:30

  • Long-lost IT bigwig found in Surrey forest

    'Great way of positioning capital' says Tarzan of the Channel

    Dimension Data's former long serving EMEA CEO Russell Bolan has ditched the corporate lifestyle to hang out in the woods. The channel bigwig quit the rat race at the end of 2009 and has spent the time managing a 73 acre forest on the Surrey and Hampshire border but he is not, as it turns out, single-handedly trying to tackle …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 08:00

  • Euro court: eBay etc can be liable in fake tat cases

    Online marts to cop it if they take 'active role'

    EBay and other online marketplaces will be liable for sellers' trademark infringements if they promote infringing sales or help sellers to "optimise" their pages, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. In one of many cases dealing with how online marketplaces should deal with trademark infringement, the ECJ has said …

    Law 13 Jul 08:15

  • 'Bluetooth sniper' Windows vuln fix in light Patch Tuesday

    Unpatched machines can be crashed wirelessly

    Microsoft's latest patch Tuesday landed last night with four bulletins, the most significant of which fixes a Bluetooth-related vulnerability in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The patch (MS11-053) fixes a vulnerability in the Bluetooth stack within Windows that creates a possible, albeit difficult to exploit, code injection risk …

    Security 13 Jul 08:27

  • Western Digital to offer Windows-based small storage

    Wants a piece of that Soho pie action ... mmm

    SOHO, SOHO, it's off to work we go... Western Digital is using Windows Storage Server to build a small office storage offering. The SMB storage market is set to grow faster than the general IT market and WD wants a piece of that pie. WD will base its SOHO (small office, home office) offering specifically on Microsoft's Windows …

    Storage 13 Jul 08:30

  • Microsoft gives glimpse of Windows Server 8

    WPC 2011 Forget vSphere, feel our Hyper-V love

    Microsoft has given a peek into Windows 8 Server, the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2 and companion to the tablet-tastic Windows 8 client. The company is reported Tuesday to have boasted Windows 8 Server will pack more than 100 new features. Speaking at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), however, Microsoft seems to …

    Infrastructure 13 Jul 08:39

  • Google sets up €4.5m academic legal institute in Berlin

    Euro law must 'catch up' with using other people's stuff

    Google will fund a research centre at Humboldt University in Berlin, which from October will examine the evolution of the internet and its impact on society, science and economy. The Berlin University of Arts, the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the Hamburg Hans-Bredow-Institute are also involved in the project at …

    Law 13 Jul 09:00

  • German cops hunt HUGE ERECTION-inducing SPIDER

    13cm Brazilian arachnid leaves victims panting, priapic

    A supermarket in the German town of Bexbach was evacuated last Friday after an employee spotted a potentially-deadly Brazilian spider legging it from a crate of bananas. The eight-legged beast, described as "large, greyish" and "about 13 centimeters long", jumped from the crate and made good its escape under a shelf. A quick …

    Bootnotes 13 Jul 09:03

  • Coalition renames GCHQ internet spook-tech plans

    IMP is dead: Long live the £2bn CCDP

    Home Secretary Theresa May said the Labour government's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) is coming back to life. In a speech to Parliament outlining a new counter-terror strategy, or at least its re-branding, May said the government's Counter Terrorism Strategy (aka CONTEST) will include a resurrected Interception …

    Government 13 Jul 09:14

  • .XXX to launch nothing-but-smut unsafe search

    Hostile porno lords fear dominance

    ICM Registry, the company behind the forthcoming .xxx domain extension, plans to launch a search engine devoted entirely to porn at search.xxx. The news emerged during a panel discussion at the YNOT Summit 2011, a porn industry trade show in San Francisco late last month (depressingly SFW video at YouTube.) ICM president …

    Hosting 13 Jul 10:00

  • Anonymous spaffs Monsanto employees' details

    Targets Canadian oil sands for 'Tarmageddon', too

    Anonymous has latched onto yet another new target with the release of potentially sensitive data from controversial agricultural giant Monsanto. The notorious hacktivist collective released the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of more than 2,500 Monsanto employees and affiliates, as part of an action its has …

    Enterprise Security 13 Jul 10:19

  • UK smartphone market growth stalls

    Potential upgraders not being persuaded to do so

    Persuading punters to upgrade from ordinary handsets to smartphone is seen as the next big opportunity for phone makers and network operators. The bad news, according to UK pollster YouGov, is that there's no well marked interest in doing so. In Q2 2011, UK smartphone ownership reached 35 per cent of adults with phones, what …

    reghardware 13 Jul 10:26

  • Elton John rouses Atlantis crew - with Rocket Man

    'Nauts toil to empty station bins, unload deliveries

    The crew of space shuttle Atlantis were woken this morning by Elton John's Rocket Man, followed by a personal message from Britain's national musical treasure. Sir Elton said: "Good morning, Atlantis, this is Elton John. We wish you much success on your mission. A huge thank you to all the men and women at NASA who worked on …

    Space 13 Jul 10:40

  • LG debuts eye-tracking no-specs 3D screen

    Monitor in 'interesting story' shock

    Monitor stories are usually zzzzz, but here's an interesting one for a change: a glasses-free 3D screen that tracks your eye movements to ensure, it's claimed, you always see a perfect picture. The kit comes from LG, and its called the D2000. It's a 20in panel and uses a parallax barrier to separate out left- and right-eye …

    reghardware 13 Jul 10:58

  • Microsoft kills Windows Vista SP1 support

    Update to proper, working Vista! We call it 'Windows 7'

    Microsoft is once again trying to bump the 10 per cent market share of people and businesses still lumbered with the company's unloved Windows Vista over to its latest operating system. The software vendor's Brandon LeBlanc reminded customers in a terse blog post that support for Vista Service Pack 1 ended yesterday. Cue the …

    Operating Systems 13 Jul 10:59

  • Triceratops horn find supports meteor extinction theory

    Hell Creek fossil not actually coated in iridium, but ...

    A team of boffins from Yale University look likely to have uncovered the world's youngest dinosaur and in the process provided support for the Alvarez hypothesis – that the dinosaurs were wiped out as a result of a massive meteor strike some 65 million years ago. Since the early 1990s, it has been generally accepted that an …

    Science 13 Jul 11:19

  • vSphere 5 takes on HP with virtual storage appliance

    Now there is more than one VMware-certified offering

    EMC's VMware unit is taking on HP with a Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA), building a small and medium business mini-SAN from servers' direct-attached storage. The vSphere 5 launch included the in-house developed VSA, which combines storage directly attached to just three physical servers and combines it into a single (iSCSI) …

    Storage 13 Jul 11:22

  • Beeb flogs Doctor Who episodes via Facebook

    Secure browsing has to be disabled to view pay-Cybermen

    BBC Worldwide has begun offering episodes of the Corporation's hugely popular Doctor Who as rental options via Facebook. "As we have grown internationally, we've seen through our Facebook channel that fans who are loving the new series are asking for a guide into our rich Doctor Who back catalogue," said the Beeb's commercial …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 11:27

  • Data ownership becomes fuzzy in the cloud

    Stand up for your rights

    If Facebook has taught us nothing else, it is that people can be cavalier about protecting their data. The social networking giant has forced consumers to think differently about their data: have I just handed over the rights to the photos of my kids? Am I going to appear on my friends' pages endorsing fashion leggings thanks …

    Cloud Business 13 Jul 11:30

  • China Telecom plans iPhone launch, says report

    Jesus mobe coming to more of the People

    China Telecom is reportedly planning to launch Apple's iPhone in the tightly controlled People's Republic by the end of 2011. According to Reuters, the vendor will begin offering the handset to its 106 million subscribers later this year in a move to gain a foothold in the 3G market. China Telecom is one of three mobile …

    Mobile 13 Jul 11:36

  • Lexus CT200h hybrid

    Review Too posh to rush?

    Give Toyota its due, it's wringing the maximum amount of value from the Hybrid Synergy Drive power train. The 1.8 VVT-i Atkinson Cycle petrol engine and associated electric motor have already turned up in the Prius and Auris Hybrid, and now you can have them in a posh frock with a Lexus badge on the nose. Lexus' CT200h: the …

    reghardware 13 Jul 12:00

  • Sony launches 3D adverts channel for Bravia tellies

    Are 3D TV owners really so desperate for content?

    Not to be outdone by Samsung, Sony has rolled out a 3D video-on-demand channel for its Bravia TVs. Dubbed the "3D Experience", the channel will be pre-installed in 3D-capable Bravias bought from today. If you already own one, there will be a "refresh internet content" update shortly. A similar update for Blu-ray players and …

    reghardware 13 Jul 12:13

  • US court test for rights not to hand over crypto keys

    EFF pushing for digital Fifth Amendment

    Civil liberties activists have lent their support to a case that will test whether a US citizen can refuse to decrypt personal data on the grounds that it might be self-incriminatory. The case involves allegedly fraudulent real estate transactions. The government wants a Colorado court to compel Ramona Fricosu, who is accused …

    Law 13 Jul 12:15

  • Console gaming giant goes into handjobs

    Electronic Arts buys Bejeweled maker PopCap

    Game giant Electronic Arts is spending over a billion dollars on phone and iPad gaming company PopCap – the maker of Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies. EA is handing over $650m in cash plus $100m in EA shares to some PopCap shareholders. Additionally PopCap can earn another $550m if it hits sales targets for the next two years …

    Business 13 Jul 12:38

  • Moto cold shoulders upgrade-hungry Xoom users

    No help for Brits stuck with Android 3.0 as Yanks get 3.2

    Motorola offered no consolation today for the many UK-based owners of its Xoom Wi-Fi-only tablet who feel let down because OS updates made available in the US have not come to this country. And not just Brits. Updates released in the States have yet to reach a fair few other countries too. A company spokeswoman was only able …

    reghardware 13 Jul 13:44

  • Many parents are only on Facebook to stalk their kids

    Try to friend offspring without speaking to them

    A survey has revealed that fully 30 per cent of British parents' Facebook "friend" requests to their children get rejected, and that many then resort to using other people's login details in order to keep track of their offspring's Web-2.0 activities. This sad commentary on the number of parents who feel able to speak to their …

    Security 13 Jul 13:46

  • News Corp kills BSkyB bid amid 'difficult climate'

    But will besmirched Murdoch try again in 2012?

    News Corp has withdrawn its bid to acquire the remaining 61 per cent of BSkyB that it didn't already own, following immense political pressure in the House of Commons today. MPs were expected to vote this afternoon in favour of a motion calling on News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch to ditch the planned merger. Murdoch has faced …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 13:50

  • Bischoff's bargain-basement breakout battle at Acer

    Fujitsu vet wrestles mighty landslide of cheapo boxes

    Troubled Taiwanese PC maker Acer has enlisted the services of former HP and Fujitsu Siemens exec Bernd Bischoff to advise on a "ground-up restructure" of its EMEA professional business. The consultancy role was confirmed to senior staff by president Walter Deppeler as Acer, wrestling with excess kit woes and weakened demand in …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 13:59

  • Netflix splits DVD, streaming offers in 60% price hike

    Think of it as a discount on a thing you never use!

    Netflix has announced that they're no longer offering a streaming-plus-DVD service. Instead, you can have either streaming or DVD, but if you want both, you'll have to pay for both. The old monthly plan was $9.99 per month, which allowed unlimited streaming of movies plus the ability to rent any one DVD at a time. Such DVDs …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 14:51

  • Oracle alarmed as Avnet TS loses Bharat

    'We are really surprised', say Ellison's men

    Avnet Technology Solutions is further restructuring its management deck, with EMEA director of the Oracle hardware and software franchise Mickey Bharat set to leave the distributor. Bharat joined Avnet through its 2008 acquisition of Horizon and according to sources within Oracle – who questioned the logic of his departure – …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 15:14

  • Cisco gooses switching, virtual I/O for blades

    Servers not yet crossing Sandy Bridge

    Cisco has rolled out upgrades to its "California" Unified Computing System blade servers, but its announcement could have been much more interesting. The networking-cum-server-making giant is hosting its annual IT and communications Cisco Live event in Las Vegas this week, and in a perfect world this would also have been the …

    Servers 13 Jul 16:01

  • Ballmer's breaking point: Is Windows 8 already too late?

    Radio Reg Office 365 politics

    Steve Ballmer is feeling the heat. Last month, he was so concerned with criticism of his leadership skills, he spilled some Redmond financial results he probably shouldn't have spilled. "You tell me if I lack energy, conviction or we're not driving change we need to drive," Ballmer roared at Seattle's Rotary Club, before …

    Microbite 13 Jul 16:30

  • Google's Facebook: It rocks, but who cares?

    Open...and Shut Better isn't always better

    The geek alit are abuzz with the NEXT! NEW! THING! It's called Google Plus (Google+), and my inbox is peppered with notifications that I've been added to so-and-so's Circle. Unfortunately, I'm already connected with many of these people on Facebook. More unfortunately, I've never heard of some of the people that have been adding …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 17:00

  • Bangs for bucks: Our lightning tour of cloudonomics

    How to measure a piece of string

    The important question about moving to the cloud is: am I getting a good deal? It is easy to ask, but if you start to think about it in detail you might fancy a long lie down in a darkened room. For the purpose of this lightning tour of cloud economics, I’m making several big assumptions: The first is that you have access to …

    Infrastructure 13 Jul 18:00

  • VMware: We will virtualize entire world in six years

    Deeper and deeper penetration

    VMware is unquestionably the bellwether of virtualization on the x64 server platform, particularly within corporate data centers that run companies not in the internet business. And among VMware's customer base, the penetration of virtualization is on the rise. Virtualization use is not just expanding in terms of the …

    Virtualization 13 Jul 18:40

  • W3C moves to snuff Apple web patents

    Er, Steve. HTML5 is royalty free

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched a bid to overturn two Apple patent filings that may apply to the HTML5 standard. The web standards group – which is responsible for the HTML5 spec – has asked the world to submit prior art on US patent applications 11/432,295 and 7,743,336. The patents cover ways to secure …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 18:53

  • Database high priest mud-wrestles Facebook

    Rubbishes MySQL. Bitchslaps NoSQL

    Mike Stonebraker is famous for slagging Google's backend. And now he's slagging Facebook's too. Last week, in a piece from our friends at GigaOM, Database Grandpoobah Mike Stonebraker announced that Facebook's continued dependance on MySQL was “a fate worse than death,” insisting that the social network's only route to …

    Software 13 Jul 21:11

  • Google top brass (and Zuck) hit Google+ privacy button

    Do as we say, not as we do

    Mark Zuckerberg, Google founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and a whole raft of Google's top brass have suddenly activated the privacy settings on their Google+ profiles. Even though they want you to expose your entire life to world+dog over the interwebs, they would rather not. The newly activated privacy settings has made it …

    ID 13 Jul 21:37

  • PayPal teaches Androids to swap cash

    Touch, vibrate, pay up

    PayPal has unveiled an Android widget that lets you transfer money to a friend or colleague simply by tapping your phone to theirs. At a conference in San Francisco, California, PayPal senior director of mobile Laura Chambers demonstrated this peer-to-peer payments system using two Samsung Nexus S phones. Samsung's Android- …

    Mobile 13 Jul 22:41

  • vSphere 5.0 – up close and virtual

    The Infosmack on flagship VMware product

    Yesterday VMware boss Paul Maritz launched vSphere 5.0 to an expectant world. Maritz at vSphere 5.0 launch El Reg covered the gig in San Francisco with the following stories: VMware launches vSphere 5 into the clear blue sky VMware: We will virtualize entire world in six years VMware taxes your virtual memory vSphere …

    Virtualization 13 Jul 22:59

  • Berkeley Lab preps 100 Gbps prototype network

    Level 3 and Ciena on board

    Berkeley Lab is to start laying the foundations for a 100 Gbps academic research network, in a subcontract agreement with Internet2. Under the US Department of Energy’s $62m long-term investment in high speed academic networks, Berkeley Lab will work with staff from the DOE’s ESnet and Internet2 to develop a 100 Gbps prototype …

    HPC 13 Jul 23:00