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10th August 2011 Archive

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  • Google promises fix for jittery Usenet addicts

    Newsgroups never die. They only fade away. And come back again

    Usenet diehards are complaining that Google is no longer mirroring the venerable internet discussion forums on its web-based Google Groups service, but the company has reassured them that this is merely a glitch that will soon be resolved. On August 1, Google Groups seemed to stop updating its Usenet forums, and as of Tuesday …

    Music and Media 10 Aug 00:18

  • Senetas gets UK foothold for crypto kit

    SELEX Elsag targeting gov.uk customers

    Australian network crypto hardware developer Senetas has announced an agreement with SELEX Elsag to supply kit into UK government contracts. Back in May, Melbourne-based Senetas announced it was seeking CESG CAPS approval for its CN range of high-speed Ethernet and Fibre Channel crypto kit via its English subsidiary. Under …

    Business 10 Aug 00:30

  • Hackers crack crypto for GPRS mobile networks

    Your cellphone data intercepted

    A cryptographer has devised a way to monitor cellphone conversations by exploiting security weaknesses in the technology that forms the backbone used by most mobile operators. Karsten Nohl, chief scientist of Berlin-based Security Research Labs, said the attack works because virtually all of the world's cellular networks deploy …

    Security 10 Aug 04:00

  • Five... freshly picked iOS gaming apps

    iGamer The latest from Apple's amusement arcade

    If you've survived the sink estate uprising and still have a job after Global Financial Meltdown II, you might just enjoy one of the recent crop of iOS games on your commute to work. Cut the Rope: Experiments Cut rope, free candy, feed Om Nom. Like all the best casual titles, Cut the Rope's simple premise and controls belied …

    reghardware 10 Aug 06:00

  • Microsoft gives BPOS customers credit note for latest crash

    Voucher for flakey service designed to appease clients

    Microsoft UK has vowed to provide BPOS customers with vouchers against future credits following seven hours of downtime at the weekend. This is the latest in a series of embarrassing cloud outages for Redmond after a summer of interruptions began in May, but differs from other incidents in that an "Act of God" was responsible …

    Platform 10 Aug 08:00

  • Glaswegian arrested for pro-riot Facebook posts

    LOL!

    A Scottish teenager has been arrested for alleged incitement after posting pro-disorder statements on Facebook. Glasgow has been mostly untouched by the disturbances despite the dangerous incitement of 16-year-old Alexander McQuarrie from Cessnock. Strathclyde Police said the arrest sent a strong message "to anyone who is …

    Policing 10 Aug 08:32

  • US Air Force in a seriously stealthless state

    F-22s and F-35s grounded

    The US Air Force has been left seriously short of stealth capacity following the grounding of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs), while its F-22 Raptor fleet has been stuck on the tarmac since May. The US's entire stealth aircraft capability currently comprises just 20 operational B-2 Spirit bombers. The USAF …

    Government 10 Aug 08:43

  • Local TV pioneers sought by Ministry of Fun

    65 possibilities, 20 pioneers

    The Ministry of Fun is looking for communities who want local TV, and has produced a map of 65 places that could be first to receive it - that is, if any locals want to argue their case. Keen volunteers aren't expected to run the stations, only to submit two pages explaining why their city, town, or area should be one of the …

    Government 10 Aug 09:07

  • Seagate's flash-disk hybrid crosses the chasm

    One million shipped

    A million units of Seagate's flash-disk hybrid drive, the Momentus XT, have shipped inside notebook computers, firmly establishing the viability of the format. The drive is a 2.5-inch, 7,200 rpm spinning disk 500GB Momentus drive, with 4GB of flash read cache inside the drive enclosure. Active files can be loaded into the …

    Storage 10 Aug 09:31

  • Deduplication’s Role in Disaster Recovery

    The SNIA speaks

    Deep dive El Reg has teamed up with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) for a series of deep dive articles. Each month, the SNIA will deliver a comprehensive introduction to basic storage networking concepts. This month the SNIA examines how deduplication can help with disaster recovery arrangements. Data …

    Storage 10 Aug 09:35

  • Rootkit gangs fight for control of infected PCs

    Malware that seeks and destroys other malware

    A turf war is developing between rootkit-touting cybercrooks over control of infected PCs. Rootkits are strains of malware designed to hide below the level of anti-virus scanners and programmed to carry out functions such as click fraud. The Russian developer of one of the more potent strains of rootkit, TDL, is supplementing …

    Malware 10 Aug 09:53

  • Motorola hints at Microsoft deal

    Hello WinPho

    Motorola is open to the idea of partnering with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone handsets, although only if the revised platform proves its longevity. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said that while the company remains focussed on Android for the time being, it is open for working with WinPho OS if the conditions are right …

    reghardware 10 Aug 10:17

  • Falling axe strikes space shuttle workers

    Services no longer required

    This Friday, 515 employees of major space shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) will be given their pink slips, and will join 1,550 former colleagues who were shown the door immediately after the landing of the shuttle Atlantis on 21 July. USA - a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin - expects to lay off a …

    Space 10 Aug 10:32

  • Indie fans urged to shop to help Sony-singed labels

    Small labels hit hard by Enfield arson

    A call has gone out to fans to help revive the UK's indie music scene, devastated by the London riots. Many of Britain's smallest and most inventive labels suffered disproportionately in the Sony warehouse arson on Monday night. Typically started by music fanatics and musicians themselves, indie labels don't have the global …

    Music and Media 10 Aug 10:51

  • Apple nudges out Exxon Mobil for top spot on Wall Street

    iSlick move in volatile trading market

    Apple briefly shunted Exxon Mobil into the No. 2 spot on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday to become the most valuable company in the US. The oil giant was restored to the top of the pile at close of trading on Tuesday, which was another difficult day on Wall Street. Late last week America slipped from the much-desired ' …

    Financial News 10 Aug 10:59

  • iPad threatened by young pretenders

    New wave of vendors to take on Apple where others failed

    High prices and a lack of content are stymieing growth of iPad wannabes in Europe but Chinese and Taiwanese vendors could mount a stiffer challenge, according to a report by tech research company Forrester. Pretenders to Apple's fondleslab crown are off the mark, the analyst says. However even the US titan is vulnerable to …

    PCs & Chips 10 Aug 11:10

  • Essex cops slaps cuffs on social media riot crusaders

    Fiendish Facebook users suspected of inciting violence

    Eager Essex fuzz have cuffed three locals lads suspected of using social media site Facebook to whip gangs of teenage marauders into a looting frenzy. An 18-year-old man from Grays and a 16-year-old from South Ockendon were taken into custody yesterday morning, where they remain, and a 17-year-old who was caught at around 5pm …

    Policing 10 Aug 11:23

  • Security watchers question supposed Facebook hack

    Claims of new hacktivist target look like a hoax

    Reported plans by Anonymous to attack Facebook on 5 November appear to be an elaborate hoax by an unknown source. A manifesto urging net users to "kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy" was posted on a newly created YouTube channel, FacebookOp, on 16 July. The video features the robotic voice familiar from previous …

    Enterprise Security 10 Aug 11:48

  • Google kills off app maker

    Android click-to-program heading for open source?

    Google's App Inventor could be revived as an open source platform in order to let students click their way to Android applications without having to muck about learning stuff. App Inventor was run by Google Labs, the research operation currently being shut down as part of the chocolate factory's streamlining focus. But in a …

    Applications 10 Aug 11:55

  • Watchdog washes hands of Lush hack

    Soft soap for hippy soap seller

    The Information Commissioner's Office is facing criticism today for its failure to punish online retailer Lush for losing 5,000 customer debit and credit card details Lush, home to fruit-based soaps, shampoos and bath bombs, was forced to temporarily shut its website after losing the details late last year. It advised punters …

    Enterprise Security 10 Aug 11:57

  • Facebook gets creative with mobile phone data harvesting app

    Contact-tapping Messenger coming to Europe 'very soon'...

    Facebook wants to hook into mobile phone users who don't necessarily have a profile set up on the dominant social network. The company has launched a service in the US that's a separate app linking messages in Facebook with texts, chats and emails on a mobile phone. In effect, the Web2.0 outfit has tapped into the SMS market …

    Applications 10 Aug 12:08

  • Nintendo 3DS gets Cloud cover

    Wi-Fi freebies now

    Following a sudden 3DS price cut, Nintendo offered early adopters complimentary games as a loyalty reward. That generosity continues this week, after the company struck a deal with The Cloud to bring free Wi-Fi to all 3DS console owners. Last night 5000 new access points were made available – gamers can utilise services such …

    reghardware 10 Aug 12:20

  • Ofcom checks up on mobile coverage

    Smartphones = crap at making calls

    According to Ofcom's latest intervention in the sticky world of mobile phone operators, coverage checkers are generally fairly accurate but the regulator would like to see integrated mapping and point-of-sale checks. It seems that only 30 per cent of us even know that coverage maps exist, with the rest still trusting to luck …

    Government 10 Aug 12:31

  • Panasonic preps Pocket Server

    I wandered wirelessly as a cloud

    Panasonic has unveiled a Wireless Pocket Server which lets users stream content to iOS devices, preserving precious storage space on these Apple gadgets as well as other Wi-Fi enabled gear. Aimed mainly at iPhone and iPad users, the Panasonic Pocket Server DY-PS10 streams files stored on an SD card. It handles a range of …

    reghardware 10 Aug 12:50

  • Nokia's software exits the US market

    It's Windows Phone or bust

    Nokia is to give up on its feature and low-end business in America, making the company a Windows Phone manufacturer as it makes one last pitch to become relevant in the USA. The news came during an interview with the President of Nokia's US operation, Chris Weber, who was talking to AllThingsD. Explaining how the company was …

    Mobile 10 Aug 13:41

  • Heavily-looted mobile phone barns issue 'safety first' missives to staff

    Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u urge caution as DC readies water cannon

    British mobile phone resellers are in turmoil after being repeatedly targeted by thugs during the past four days of rioting that began in London before spreading to other cities. Unsurprisingly those businesses are urging extreme caution among frontline staff. Carphone Warehouse, the country's largest independent handset …

    Policing 10 Aug 13:51

  • Phone hacking arrest: Police cuff 61-year-old man

    Suspected of alleged interception of communications

    The Metropolitan Police has arrested another person in connection with allegations of phone hacking. Scotland Yard confirmed this afternoon that a 61-year-old man was arrested by appointment at a London police station. The unnamed individual is currently in the custody of officers from the Operation Weeting investigation. " …

    Policing 10 Aug 13:57

  • Amazon web services customers vent spleen

    Cloud giant says sorry for outage and resulting issues

    Vulnerabilities in Amazon's web services that were exposed after lightning hit power supplies at the weekend have led to stinging criticism from some customers. The bolt knocked out the utility and back-up generators in Dublin, causing a blackout which took down the Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) and Relational Database Services …

    Infrastructure 10 Aug 14:29

  • Avnet sales dampened by slippery EMEA market

    Acquisition integration and "tepid market" blamed

    The integration of acquisitions and a "tepid recovery" in the local tech market saw Avnet EMEA sales slide in Q4 but less challenging conditions in the rest of its world-wide operations more than made up for the dip. The distributor pushed up global revenues 32.6 per cent to $6.9bn for the period ended 3 July, while organic …

    Channel Register 10 Aug 14:46

  • Who'd buy a fake battery?

    Booze, tobacco and gadget fakes in police probe

    The Intellectual Property Office's IP Crime Group issued its annual report yesterday, and it highlights some jaw-dropping rip-offs. A gang in Hackney used "high-tech equipment" to crank out 1.3m litres of counterfeit vodka, enough to buy them penthouse apartments. A less ambitious operation churning out hand-rolling tobacco …

    Government 10 Aug 15:03

  • Hauppauge Colossus HD PCIe card

    Review TV and gaming captured

    When I first looked at the box containing the Hauppauge Colossus I wasn’t quite sure as to what its exact purpose was. I saw the words “HD Video Recorder,” “PCI-Express,” and “HDMI” thinking I could use it to record almost anything and then I noticed the asterisks. Hauppauge's Colossus: break out the old VHS tapes Hauppauge …

    reghardware 10 Aug 15:09

  • Lossless music goes High Street

    Quality downloads for the masses

    British digital download store 7Digital is expanding the range of lossless music available for download. Albums will now be available in the industry standard FLAC format from artists such as Radiohead and Enya - in some cases cheaper than the MP3 equivalent. Both 24-bit and 16-bit versions will be available; FLAC is a …

    Music and Media 10 Aug 15:13

  • Apple injunction startles Samsung

    Settling the Tab

    Samsung has responded to Apple's sudden legal request against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with surprise, claiming the injunction came out of the blue and the company never had a chance to present its side of the argument. A Samsung spokeswoman issued a statement that said the company was "disappointed" with the court's decision to put …

    reghardware 10 Aug 15:16

  • Chinese government under cyber siege

    'We're the victims not the perps'

    The Chinese government claims it came under almost 500,000 cyberattacks last year, most of which it said originated outside the country. Most of the attacks involved Trojan horse malware, according to a report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China. A report by the cyber-monitoring …

    Malware 10 Aug 15:31

  • Nokia snubs UK with N9

    No plans to bring contractual obligation phone

    It might well be the best phone the beleaguered company launches in 2011 - but Nokia won't be bringing its shiny new N9 to the UK. "There are no plans to offer the Nokia N9 at present," the company confirmed to a blog today. Two years ago Nokia anointed its Linux platform MeeGo (originally called Maemo, before a destablising …

    Mobile 10 Aug 15:33

  • London rioters should 'loose all benefits'

    Angry e-petition demands serious, if misspelled, action

    Amid angry calls for UK rioters to face plastic bullets, water cannon, the Army, a spell in the Army, jail or all of the above, comes this e-petition demanding that the feral youth of Britain be stripped of their state hand-outs. Or rather, it insists that convicted public disorder offenders "loose all benefits", which we …

    Bootnotes 10 Aug 15:42

  • Trojan script gets stuck on superglue site

    Sticky situation for malware

    The website of Super Glue became bunged up with a malicious script earlier this week as part of a tricky problem that was only resolved on Wednesday. Prior to their removal of malicious redirection scripts, visitors to the world-famous adhesive maker's site were redirected to a site punting crud, Avast software warned. It …

    Enterprise Security 10 Aug 16:03

  • Hack on Hong Kong Stock Exchange disrupts trading

    'Malicious attack' keeps traders in dark

    Hackers took down a website belonging to the Hong Kong stock Exchange, prompting Asia's third-largest securities exchange to suspend trading in the shares of London-based HSBC and six other companies. “Our current assessment is that this is the result of a malicious attack by outside hacking,” HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li, …

    Security 10 Aug 17:31

  • Red Hat dev cloud welcomes Java EE 6

    JBoss floated to 10,000 feet

    Red Hat has announced that its OpenShift developer cloud now handles Java Enterprise Edition 6, boasting that this is the first "platform-as-as-service" to do so. An online service for building, hosting, and readily-scaling applications, OpenShift is akin to Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, and Cloud Foundry, the new open …

    Platform 10 Aug 19:09

  • New York police launch Facebook perp watch unit

    Take aim at Idiots 2.0

    The New York City police department has created a new juvenile justice unit intent on tracking people who discuss criminal activities on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and, um, MySpace. According to The New York Daily News, freshly-appointed assistant commissioner Kevin O'Connor – styled as the NYPD's " …

    Music and Media 10 Aug 21:12

  • Fake collar bomb victim back in lock down

    Police suspect further threats to IT millionaire’s family

    The 18-year-old daughter of IT executive and multi-millionaire Bill Pulver is again being targeted by her mystery attacker. Last week, Madeleine Pulver spent 10 hours trapped in her home with a faux collar bomb attached to her neck, after an extortionist broke into the family mansion in the plush Sydney suburb of Mosman. …

    Crime 10 Aug 22:00

  • Kogan plugs 'cheap stuff' bug

    Customers get hug

    Technology e-tailer Kogan has pledged to honour hundreds of hugely discounted orders that were placed while a bug afflicted its Website. For nearly two hours Kogan’s online shoppers were able to punch in several promotions simultaneously, combined with free shipping, which resulted in over 500 orders of Kogan’s set top box and …

    Business 10 Aug 22:30

  • VMware lets Rabbit loose on open source code cloud

    Cloud Foundry gets the messaging

    VMware has plugged the open source RabbitMQ messaging system into Cloud Foundry, the "platform-as-a-service" it introduced in beta form earlier this year. RabbitMQ provides a means of facilitating communication within and between applications and services. "RabbitMQ is now a first class citizen of Cloud Foundry," VMware …

    Platform 10 Aug 22:50