5th September 2011 Archive
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Infomedia buys UK rival for $AU4.8m
Automotive software specialists merge
ASX listed automotive software developer Infomedi, has snapped up UK based Different Aspect Software for $AU4.8 million (£3,174,000). Under a share purchase agreement Infomedia has acquired the entire company which provides IT application solutions to the automotive industry, including all intellectual property rights and its …
Business 5 Sep 04:28
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Four depart in Internode reorganization
Management shuffle sparks sale speculation
High-profile challenger ISP Internode has made four managers redundant, in a move that has sparked online speculation that the company might be looking for a buyer. In spite of repeated assertions over the years by founder Simon Hackett that the company could have taken plenty of offers if it wanted to sell, the speculation …
Business 5 Sep 04:29
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Teen tags disintegrating comet
Work experience win for amateur astronomer
It started as a work experience project, and ended with congratulations from the International Astronomical Society: an 18-year-old Cardiff high school student has discovered an unusual fragmenting comet. Hannah Blyth of St Johns College at Cardiff was working with the Faulks Telescope Project’s summer work experience program …
Space 5 Sep 04:56
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DNS hijack hits The Register: All well
Update NetNames statement
On early Sunday evening, UK time, The DNS records of many websites, including those of The Register and The Telegraph, were hijacked and redirected to a third party webpage controlled by Turkish hackers. The Register's website was not breached. And as far as we can tell there was no attempt to penetrate our systems. But we …
Site News 5 Sep 06:51
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London Olympics journey planner crash effort launched
Routeware wanted ASAP to stop lorries clogging up Games
Transport for London (TfL) is running a high-speed procurement of a freight journey planner for the Olympic Games, with a tender in the Official Journal of the European Union, marked as an accelerated procedure and deemed "time-critical". The tender notice for a web-based system and interactive map application specifies just …
Public Sector 5 Sep 07:58
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Google does a mean spring clean
Kills the questioning Aardvark
Google has taken the broom to ten of its experimental services as part a self described “fail fall spring-clean". “Technology improves, people’s needs change, some bets pay off and others don’t. Over the next few months we’ll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features,” the …
Business 5 Sep 08:01
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Sony schedules UK e-book store opening
Ready for new e-readers, tablets
Sony is to open its own e-book shop in the UK. The Reader Store will allow owners of Sony's lastest Reader e-book viewer to buy content on the device itself. The new Reader, the PRS-T1, was announced at the IFA consumer electronics show last week, and has Wi-Fi on board - the first time Sony has made an wirelessly connected …
reghardware 5 Sep 08:24
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Nobody has any idea about new pension thing happening
Bet you don't either: Click on this and learn
More than half of workers are "totally unaware" that they will be auto-enrolled into a pension plan when changes to the law come into force next year, according to a survey. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) quarterly 'Employee Outlook' (12-page/370KB PDF) revealed that young people and those in non …
Financial News 5 Sep 08:26
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Orange juggles broadband price plans
Claims UK's cheapest rate - with caveats
Orange has tweaked its set of broadband packages, claiming the move makes it the cheapest ISP in the UK. Maybe, but only if you're also an Orange mobile phone customer, which qualifies you for a £5 discount. That takes the price of the three packages to £5, £10 and £12.75, respectively. All of them incorporate "unlimited" …
reghardware 5 Sep 08:52
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OCZ plays its joker in the hybrid drive card game
Death pill to cure the hourglass or whirly wait cursor?
OCZ has put its hybrid drive cards on the table in the shape of the RevoDrive Hybrid, with 1TB of spinning disk and 100GB of flash, gambling that punters will go for that combination of flash speed and disk capacity at a 45¢/GB price. A prototype was shown in July and its specifications have been uprated. That had 60GB of …
Storage 5 Sep 08:57
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Facebook deletes hacked Pages, destroying years of work
'Why won't it do what it says on the help page?'
Businesses and individuals using Facebook Pages are getting booted off their fanpage with no way back on, and it's costing some of them money. Typically, the administrator tries to access the Page, only to discover that someone else has managed to get admin privileges and then deleted their admin status. Because they are no …
Networks 5 Sep 09:26
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Galaxy Tab 7.7 pulled from IFA after new Apple moves
IFA 2011 'Apple makes iPads; does it make movies?' - Sony chief
Barely one day after the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin opened its doors to the general public, Samsung had to pull its unreleased Galaxy Tab 7.7 from its booth, including all posters and promotional materials. A Dusseldorf Regional Court recently granted Apple a temporary sales ban on the earlier Galaxy Tab 10.1 …
Business 5 Sep 09:48
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Zalman ZM-VE200 portable virtual Rom drive
Geek Treat of the Week It's an external HDD! It's an optical drive! It's ISO heaven!
Zalman's external hard drive case is a bit different from most. Yes, it works like a standard drive case - slip in a 2.5in hard drive or SSD, and hook up the extra storage to your computer over USB 2.0 or eSata - the ZM-VE200 supports both. It's a nice-looking unit too, though - again - that's not uncommon. Ditto the small LCD …
reghardware 5 Sep 10:00
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Low blow: Phishers target student loan applicants
Sadly victims may not notice grammatical error
Phishers are targeting UK student loan applicants in a new scam campaign. Fraudulent emails, posing as messages from Directgov UK, attempt to trick recipients into handing over online account information and other personal data to fraudsters under the guise of a supposed account update. "We at HM Government noticed your …
ID 5 Sep 10:14
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IDC numbers show chink in NetApp wall
Time for a peer into the crystal ball
IDC's second quarter disk storage revenue numbers show NetApp and Dell both losing ground. These numbers measure worldwide factory revenues for external disk storage systems and for the total disk storage systems category. Differences are revealed by contrasting the year-on-year second quarter growth numbers and also by …
Storage 5 Sep 10:27
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Amazon's cloudy vid-tablet breaks cover: Not an iClone
Early fondlings suggest serious Apple slab rival
Early reports are emerging on the new Android-based Amazon Kindle, and the indications are that the bookstore has done well in forking Google's baby into its own likeness. A colour Kindle has been widely anticipated, and close integration into Amazon's cloudy offerings comes as no surprise, but with a $250 price tag and …
PCs & Chips 5 Sep 10:44
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Freeview to get fifth HD channel
Gentlemen, start your bids
Britain is to get a fifth HD channel on Freeview, regulator Ofcom confirmed today, you lucky, lucky people. The watchdog said it has invited the UK's commercial free-to-air channels - the likes of ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and, apparently, "the Welsh Authority" - to tell it what they would do with the extra slot if they had it …
reghardware 5 Sep 10:57
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China mulls further social-network controls
Communists worried about the astroturf menace
Communist Party officials in Beijing have flagged up concerns about the growth of micro-blogging websites in China. According to a Reuters report, China may be pushing for more robust controls of such sites. The article cites a commentary piece written for the People's Daily by individuals who pen the Communist Party's …
Networks 5 Sep 10:58
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London bus timings mobile beta site spotted
Next bus is in 5 minutes. It has 3 annoying youths on board
Londoners will soon be able to use their phones to check when the next bus is coming, thanks to a new feed of data opened up by Transport For London and available on a mobile-optimised website. The Live Bus Departures Countdown service will be useful for passengers lingering, fretful and uninformed, at the 17,000 London bus …
Public Sector 5 Sep 11:21
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'Missing heat' climate paper: Journal editor resigns
Reviewers of Spencer paper all sceptics, says Wagner
Wolfgang Wagner, the editor of new open access science journal Remote Sensing has resigned, re-opening the debate about the politicisation of science publishing. The August edition of Remote Sensing included a peer-reviewed paper by Spencer and Braswell [original PDF/370KB], citing satellite evidence showing that more heat …
Environment 5 Sep 11:41
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MPs to grill ex-NotW editor as Met cuffs another man
Phone-hack scandal holds up young Murdoch's $6m bonus
Scotland Yard brought the total number of arrests so far in its ongoing phone hacking allegations investigation at the now-defunct News of the World to 16 last Friday. The Met cuffed a 30-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages, contrary to the Criminal Law Act, and attempting to pervert the …
Music and Media 5 Sep 12:01
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HP Pre 3 webOS smartphone
Review Palmed off
So it’s come to this. After a potentially brand-saving buyout by HP and the launch of a well-received – at least critically, if not commercially – operating system with webOS, Palm is finally on the way out. End of the line: HP's Pre 3 Recently, HP announced that it is discontinuing webOS and besides the Touchpad, the other …
reghardware 5 Sep 12:04
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Sweden rolls out invisible infrared tank
Pixellated thermal armour cloak conceals or disguises
Engineers in Sweden have announced the development of a prototype tank which is covered in "pixels" that enable it to disappear from thermal images – or to disguise itself as something else. The "Adaptiv" system, funded by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), covers the test vehicle in hexagonal panels whose …
Government 5 Sep 12:13
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Spamhaus victorious after 5-year fight with mass mailer
Long road leads to dead end, in a minefield, up a creek
Spamhaus has finally prevailed in a long-running US court action against it by e360 Insight, a firm it blacklisted for spamming. e360 Insight sued Spamhaus in the US over the blacklisting way back in 2006. Spamhaus, which is based in the UK, argued (on the advice of lawyers) that it was outside the jurisdiction of US courts. …
Spam 5 Sep 12:38
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Hurry up with webcams in courts, says Sky News boss
Media chief feels justice system needs more credibility
Streaming trials on the internet will help people have confidence in the British justice system, Sky News boss John Ryley claimed in an open letter to the Justice Secretary today. Justice Secretary Ken Clarke promised to open up British courts to cameras eight months ago in a meeting with Sky, the BBC and ITN – but as yet only …
Law 5 Sep 13:07
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Diplomats questioned Microsoft deal with Tunisian regime
Local Microsoftie feared to meet Bill Gates empty handed
Microsoft sold software and training to the armed forces of Tunisia's repressive former regime six years ago, a leaked WikiLeaks cable has revealed. The deal alarmed even the normally flag-waving trade patriots in the US government, according to the cable. The leaked cable, sent from the US embassy in Tunis in 2006, reports …
Public Sector 5 Sep 13:27
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Ex US internal-security overlord bigs up cyber menace
Chertoff fears 'dangerous intrusions'
Cyberattacks are the top threat to future national security, according to the former head of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Michael Chertoff. It's well known that Chertoff, who is now the co-founder and managing principal of private security consultancy the Chertoff Group, has a healthy respect for the power of …
Enterprise Security 5 Sep 13:45
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How are we going to search our hard disks now?
Stuff your cloud, we want proper desktop search
Regular readers will know my occasional whinges about the sad state of the market for email clients – these generate hundreds of emails and comments. But there is another product category that is looking decidedly shabby these days. It is one which every so often becomes fashionable for a few weeks, and then goes on to suffer …
Applications 5 Sep 14:11
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IT services market down by 40 per cent, says Ovum
Mighty mega-deals of old now well-nigh extinct
Disappearing mega-deals saw the global IT services market slump to an eight-year low in the second quarter, according to Ovum. Stats from the beancounter show that total contract values (TCV) dived 40 per cent year-on-year to $19bn as the number of agreements penned fell by a fifth to 384. The market went from "bad to worse" …
CIO 5 Sep 14:58
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Nearing iPhone 5 launch prompts operator action
Vouchers from T-Mobile
World+Dog is gearing up for the iPhone 5. Deutsche Telekom today said it will begin allotting the as yet unreleased - or even announced - handset to T-Mobile subscribers by handing those who ask for one a voucher entitling them to the phone when it finally goes on sale. So said a DT spokesman who spoke to Bloomberg today. …
reghardware 5 Sep 15:23
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HP plucks webOS team out of departing PC division
Hardware bods still have 'For Sale' on foreheads
HP evidently sees a brighter future for its webOS platform after moving the team into the Office of Strategy and Technology (OS&T) as it figures out what to do with the software. The other half of the business HP acquired from Palm – the hardware element – will continue to reside in its Personal Systems Group that will likely …
Business 5 Sep 15:58
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Dell channel boss heads to HDS
Paul Harrison set to take on old paymaster
Dell UK channel boss Paul Harrison is set to leave at the end of the week to join Hitachi Data Systems, The Register can reveal. In a note sent to resellers today, the Texan titan confirmed that after 11 years on board, including the last two-and-a-half as reseller lead, Harrison is in the process of handing the reins to Bill …
Channel Register 5 Sep 16:13
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Google in freetard-friendly copyright infringement update
Choc Factory wishes content biz Happy Labor Day... And Nyah!
The Friday before a public holiday is traditionally a great time to bury bad news. Google chose the Labor Day Lull to give the world an update on its copyright infringement measures. Funny, that. Since the RIAA ended its catastrophic strategy of suing end users in 2008 (although not everyone has noticed), copyright enforcers …
Music and Media 5 Sep 17:00
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Telstra hauls in wholesale IPv6
Australia gears up for next gen IP address explosion
Aussie telco Telstra has opened the gates to IPv6, offering enterprise, government and wholesale customers access to the next generation of internet addresses. Telstra’s internet backbone is now fully dual-stacked, which means customers can be connected with either IPv4 or IPv6. The current IPv4 offers 32 bits for an internet …
Telecoms 5 Sep 22:30
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Oz bookseller fires back in online battle
Amazon in Dymocks’ crosshairs
Australian bookseller Dymocks, practically the “last man standing” as the combination of online competition, inept management and a rising currency decimates the local publishing industry, is firing back with what it calls an “end to end” online service for local authors. Perhaps hoping that Jeff Bezos is busy looking for his …
Music and Media 5 Sep 23:30
