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30th September 2011 Archive

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  • Apotheker severance outrage: $2.4m 'bonus'

    HP savior CEO Whitman? $1 (and a whole lotta stock)

    The rich are different from the rest of us not just because they have more money, but also because they get multimillion-dollar bonuses even when they run a company onto the rocks, as did former HP CEO Léo Apotheker. Apotheker was fired from his positions as president and CEO of HP on September 22. The same day, HP announced …

    Business 30 Sep 00:03

  • Sony was a victim as well: Australian privacy watchdog

    Off the hook for PSN hack

    Victims of the Sony Playstation Network hack included Sony, according to Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim. His just-concluded investigation, launched in April, was designed to determine whether or not the hack compromised the personal information of Australian subscribers to the service, and the degree to which …

    Security 30 Sep 00:57

  • Qualys endorses alternative to crappy SSL system

    Moxie Marlinspike's Convergence gets show of support

    San Francisco-based security firm Qualys is throwing its support behind an experimental project designed to improve the security and privacy of website authentication by reducing reliance on certificate authorities that issue secure sockets layer credentials. The Convergence project was devised by Moxie Marlinspike, a security …

    Enterprise Security 30 Sep 05:00

  • Toshiba Regza 47VL863 passive 3D TV

    Review Telly that works with 3D glasses from the cinema

    Although ostensibly an aperitif to Toshiba’s incoming flagship LED TV models, this modestly priced 47-incher is a headline maker in its own right. Not only is it the first flatscreen from the brand to offer access to the newly-opened Toshiba Places portal, it’s also Toshiba's first passive 3D panel. The 47VL863 sells for …

    reghardware 30 Sep 07:00

  • Euro beaks mull copyright of software features

    Can what a program does be protected?

    The European Court of Justice (ECJ) should apply copyright protection to the functions of computer programs, a software company has told it, according to media reports. SAS Institute Inc claims that World Programming Ltd infringed its copyrights by developing a rival software program it designed using information published in …

    Public Sector 30 Sep 08:02

  • Bank emails punters asking for their, er, email address

    Cahoot users feared headslap move was phish attempt

    A number of Cahoot customers were left mildly confused this week when they received an email from the bank asking them to confirm their, er, email address. The missive invited customers to "log in to your personal homepage at cahoot.com and select 'change my details' to check your information is correct". Apart from the …

    Bootnotes 30 Sep 08:19

  • We7 morphs from jukebox into a radio station

    Users un-demand on-demand

    Is there anyone in the world who needs to know the difference between "on demand" and "non-interactive" music? We use the words "jukebox" and "radio" as shorthand – but really, no one should care. But in the archaic world of music licensing, the two command different royalty rates – and the higher on-demand rates are squeezing …

    Music and Media 30 Sep 08:37

  • Netscape founder's web BI investment targets IPO float

    GoodData CEO on common ground with eBay inflater

    Roman Stanek has backed the "right thing" at the right time twice during his career in tech. Is he now onto his third? In 1997, the Czech-born entrepreneur got behind a team of local programmers writing a Delphi-like Java IDE, called NetBeans. Java had only just been invented by Sun Microsystems' James Gosling and the air was …

    Business 30 Sep 09:00

  • 007's car outdrives iPhone in battle of the brands

    Bond is better. Again.

    The annual CoolBrands survey has returned this year, and Apple has again failed to claw back the top spot that its much coveted iPhone held just a couple of years before. The CoolBrands survey, which delineates the most desirable consumer brands, has once again declared Aston Martin is this year's coolest brand, keeping the …

    reghardware 30 Sep 09:15

  • Fire burns away the Kindle dream of interactivity

    Your chance to lead a creative wolfpack - gone

    Amazon's new Kindles don't have keyboards, an omission which says more about how the Kindle has evolved than any of the shiny new capabilities which have been added. To understand why the keyboard was so central to the Kindle's aspirations, it is important to remember that Kindle wasn't just supposed to be just an electronic …

    Music and Media 30 Sep 09:21

  • Computer sim explains why hippies became extinct

    Egalitarian societies of the past were doomed to oblivion

    Old-time egalitarian societies were just too stable to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, according to Stanford University researchers, a situation which led to them being overrun by the stratified societies which dominate humanity today. The study used a computer simulation to compare demographic stability and rates of migration …

    Science 30 Sep 09:38

  • Logitech AV Stand

    Accessory of the Week Turn your tab into a telly, kind of

    It's well known that the iPad's speaker is, well, a bit weedy. While there are a million and one low cost stands out there, if you really want to use your iPad as a movie screen, you need one that incorporates a decent speaker too. Enter the Logitech AV Stand, a tubular stereo speaker with an arm-mounted iPad holder. The arm …

    reghardware 30 Sep 10:00

  • GNOME emits 'head up the arse' desktop update

    All your online accounts are belong to OS

    The GNOME Project has updated its desktop barely six months after the controversial introduction of version 3.0. GNOME 3.2 has a new online accounts manager for accessing web-based services and data storage and integrating this with the browser and other software. The new code also has a viewing application dubbed Sushi, which …

    Operating Systems 30 Sep 10:16

  • Prang finder site reveals accident blackspots

    Road crash map from gobbled UK gov data

    Web coders have plotted a map of UK road crashes using data pulled via the Department of Transport's API. Launched on 27 September, CrashMap is the first application to make use of the Road Accidents and Safety dataset that was released on 30 June this year. CrashMap is listed on the data.gov.uk site as "the only up-to-date …

    Government 30 Sep 10:27

  • Adapt swallowed by Lyceum Capital

    Plans to bankroll M&A action in UK managed services space

    VC player Lyceum Capital has coughed £30m for a majority stake in London-based managed services firm Adapt to fuel a 'buy and build' strategy. The cash will be sealed in a war chest to be opened by current MD Robert Arrowsmith who becomes M&A director to lead a roll out in the managed service channel. Existing sales director …

    Channel Register 30 Sep 10:28

  • Maguro+ zombie resurrected as Oracle beast

    Database server gets freaky fans and flaps

    The genesis of Oracle's mini-Exadata – its new Database Appliance – was quite involved. The appliance is a pair of Sun Fire X4270 M2, 2-socket Xeon X5675 server nodes, which contain the DRAM, flash and disk drive storage, clustered across 1Gbit/s Ethernet instead of grown-up Exadata's QDR InfiniBand cluster connect. These …

    Servers 30 Sep 10:44

  • Don't bother with that degree, say IT pros

    Bedroom coders just as skilled as graduates

    Learning to code in your bedroom will prepare you for the IT job market just as well as a three-year degree costing £27,000, professionals said in a survey published today by CWJobs.co.uk. More than half the IT professionals polled said they would not do an IT-related degree today if they were paying the increased fees, which …

    Developer 30 Sep 10:52

  • Facebook spurns privacy probe as 'routine audit'

    More of a gentle poke than an outright dig

    Facebook's international headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, where the company just so happens to face a regulatory probe into the handling of personal data on the social network. According to the RTE, the Irish data protection commissioner will carry out a privacy audit of the site in November. That's potentially a big deal …

    ID 30 Sep 11:01

  • Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection

    Review Bossin' in HD

    Can games be ahead of their time? I’ve heard it said of musicians, film directors, even comedians but rarely attributed to any person, or any particular release, within the games industry. Perhaps it’s time we started? Take Ico, for example, originally released for PS2 in Europe in 2001 to critical praise but scant commercial …

    reghardware 30 Sep 11:08

  • Air traffic control data found on eBayed network gear

    NATS passwords and info left on £20 switch

    A switch formerly used by the UK's air-traffic service which still held networking configurations and passwords has been sold on eBay, raising security concerns. The £20 Cisco Catalyst switch was bought by security consultant Michael Kemp, co-founder at Xiphos Research Labs, who quickly discovered that it has been used at the …

    Enterprise Security 30 Sep 11:14

  • Feds probe triggers Chinese tech stock tumble

    DOJ joins SEC and FBI in irregularities inquiry

    Chinese tech companies' stock has been sliding on the NASDAQ today, after a report that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating accounting irregularities at US-listed Chinese firms. Youku, the Chinese YouTube, was particularly hard hit, down 18.3 per cent to $16.24, while search behemoth Baidu lost 9.17 per cent …

    Business 30 Sep 11:27

  • Mobes to slurp messages, links over NFC

    Optional mailbox feature added to specs

    NFC devices are to get an optional open mailbox into which messages and requests can be dropped by other NFC devices, hopefully leading to cross-platform P2P applications. The near-field communications standard is largely concerned with devices reading passive tags, or interacting with point-of-sale kit, but peer-to-peer …

    Mobile 30 Sep 11:38

  • Samsung shows second second-gen 7in Galaxy Tab

    More Apple lawyer fodder?

    Here's another one for Apple's lawyers to sink their teeth into: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. No, it's not the Galaxy Tab 7.7, nor yet an old Galaxy Tab re-issued with Android 3.2 Honeycomb. But from the look, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's pure Apple lawyer bait. The 345g tablet has a 7in, 1024 x 600 display, 1. …

    reghardware 30 Sep 11:46

  • Mighty trash-bag balloon cluster soars above Nevada

    High school student gets airborne for just $50

    It's a tip of the hat this morning to Las Vegas high school student Manuja Gunaratne, who for just $50 managed to launch a helium balloon mission and return some impressive snaps of Nevada. The basic "T.B.A.C" (Trash Bag AirCraft) payload set-up was familiar enough: second-hand Canon digital camera, running a CHDK …

    SPB 30 Sep 11:49

  • Fifa 12 kicks off with £2 HMV deal

    Save a lot, that's the goal

    With this season of the FA Premier League long underway, the annual refresh of football-related videogames is now upon us. EA returns today with its kick-about Fifa 12, which can be picked up for a generous £1.99 at HMV. Of course there are strings attached: in order to get the game at such a low cost, customers must trade in …

    reghardware 30 Sep 11:53

  • Human 'alarm clock' enzyme discovered

    Boffins isolate molecular wake-up call

    When your alarm clock doesn't go off, you can thank a humble enzyme for getting you out of bed, scientists at the Salk Institute reveal in research published today. Researchers examining the mechanisms that control our sleep have found the chemical reaction that makes us stir abruptly, throw the cat off the bed and stumble …

    Biology 30 Sep 12:09

  • Beer bottle shagging beetles with HUGE MEMBERS win prize

    Boffins scoop Ig Nobel by stalking horny insects

    Aussie beetles who mistake the brown bobbly bit round the rim of beer bottles for an alluring female have landed two entomologists this year's Ig Nobel prize for biology. Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz witnessed the misguided insects trying to do the nasty with the traditional "stubbies" in Western Australia, setting them on …

    Biology 30 Sep 12:28

  • Telcos cough mobe tracking habits

    AT&T knows where you were last summer and the summer before

    The American Civil Liberties Union has compiled 381 information requests to establish who is slurping information from phone networks and what they're finding out. The initial data reveals huge disparities between operators when it comes to how much information is stored and what is made available to the authorities. AT&T, for …

    Mobile 30 Sep 12:44

  • Quattrone blasts Ellison, says Autonomy is right

    Comment The Whopper Wars - what's Ellison's game here?

    Investment banker Frank Quattrone has said Autonomy's Mike Lynch is right and Oracle is wrong: Mike Lynch did not shop Autonomy to Oracle - he did. Oracle, in a decidedly aggressive and blunt press release and website blitzkrieg, had said that Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, accompanied by Frank Quattrone, head of Qatalyst Partners …

    Storage 30 Sep 12:58

  • Nominet suspends fake pharma domains

    Global pill crackdown pops 13,000 sites

    Nominet, the .uk address registry, has suspended hundreds of internet domain names as part of a global police crackdown on crime gangs peddling fake pharmaceuticals. Operation Pangea IV saw almost 13,500 websites taken down and dozens of suspects arrested in 81 countries, according to Interpol, which coordinated the swoop. …

    Crime 30 Sep 13:33

  • Apple turns the screws on reseller channel

    Halves early settlement discounts to 0.5% in miserly boom-time move

    Channel bully boy Apple is halving the early settlement discount for resellers across Europe in a phased rollout. Standard payment terms are 30 days. Previously dealers that paid invoices within 15 days were eligible for a 1 per cent rebate on the order, but this is falling to just 0.5 per cent, further squeezing Apple's …

    Channel Register 30 Sep 13:35

  • Huawei inks distie deals in enterprise push

    Micro P confirmed, TD Azlan expected

    Huawei has inked a distie deal with Micro P in the UK and is understood to have inked a deal with TD Azlan across Europe as it steps up efforts to give rivals a bloody nose in the enterprise space. The Chinese giant has vowed to push all of its enterprise business through resellers and has already brought on board ex-Sun sales …

    Channel Register 30 Sep 14:01

  • MS names Nokia WinPho models in compo blunder

    Sabre and Sea Ray slip out

    Microsoft has inadvertently leaked the names of forthcoming Nokia Windows Phone handsets by including them in the terms and conditions of a competition. The Nokia Sabre, as well as the familiarly-named Nokia Sea Ray, were both found mentioned in the Ts&Cs of a Microsoft Canada competition - now edited to remove the names - …

    reghardware 30 Sep 14:02

  • Avaya and Azlan split, end UK distie pact

    They're still loved up in other EMEA markets

    TD Azlan has confirmed it is splitting with Avaya in the UK but will continue the distie agreement in other parts of EMEA. Talk in the industry was that sales generated did not match the level of investment sunk into the franchise by Azlan and the firms have decided to cut ties locally. "Avaya UK and Azlan – part of the …

    Channel Register 30 Sep 14:18

  • 500 jobs threatened as Virgin Media shutters Liverpool call centre

    'Excellence' sought in Swansea

    Virgin Media is closing its outsourced call centre in Albert Dock, Liverpool, and "consolidating" its operations by shifting to an existing site in Swansea. The telco said it hoped to "create a new in-house centre of excellence for customer management in Swansea". VM's two sites are run by IBM and its contract partners Adecco …

    Networks 30 Sep 14:26

  • Electric plane-flinger for US and Royal navies doing well

    New tech which will bring back UK carriers is on track

    The electromagnetic mass-driver catapults that will equip the next generation of aircraft carriers in the British and US navies are doing well in tests. This is important to both services, as their next carriers will be effectively useless without the new technology. Soon, this will done with electricity The latest …

    Government 30 Sep 14:27

  • Life-size Lego assault rifle really works

    Brickin' it?

    We've seen all sorts of gadgets built from Lego and this wouldn't be the first piece of artillery either. However, this life-sized Gears of War assault rifle replica is far too impressive to ignore. Construction chief Plum B is the artist behind the Lancer Assault Rifle, which fires rubber bands in both semi and fully …

    reghardware 30 Sep 14:40

  • Nokia punts cheapo NFC dev kit

    Pretend you love Symbian and score a cheap C7

    Desperate to spur interest in Near Field Communications, Nokia is flogging an NFC development kit with a C7 and two dozen tags for €180, or about half the cost of a C7. It's not for everyone: the company was keen to remind us that the offer is only open to members of the Nokia Developer Launchpad programme. Membership of that …

    Mobile 30 Sep 14:57

  • Kinect 'augments' Bulgarian airbags

    Virtual chesticle enhancer looks swell

    A Japanese developer has augmented what is, arguably, the only thing worth augmenting: virtual breast enhancements with real physics, courtesy of Microsoft Kinect. Using the body-detecting features of the Kinnect, Ningen Inc has managed to overlay virtual breasts onto the real ones of people in shot, enabling men and women …

    Odds and Sods 30 Sep 15:13

  • Microsoft takes the Android profit, the Wonkas take the pain

    What price a Google Zeitgeist invite now?

    Google’s troubles with Android aren’t just financial. They’re actually much, much worse than that, which all seriously throws the company’s golden reputation for perspicacity into doubt. Why buy into Google’s vision of the future when its own estimation of the present is so deeply flawed? The fact that Microsoft is reaping all …

    Financial News 30 Sep 15:26

  • Provider: Anti-piracy ruling has 'killed Usenet'

    'Impossible to check the contents of 15 to 20 million messages a day'

    Europe’s biggest Usenet provider News-Service Europe (NSE) says anti-piracy organisation BREIN has "killed Usenet". The Dutch organisation this week lost a landmark case in which it was ordered to remove all pirated content or risk fine of €50,000 per day. "It is technically as well as economically impossible to check the …

    Crime 30 Sep 15:43

  • Bo Peep insures jubs for $1m

    NSFW 'I thought I'd cover my assets', quips US burlesque star

    Holly Madison, the US "reality TV star and model", has insured her D-cup jubs for $1m, lest they suffer a mishap during her Las Vegas extravaganza Peepshow. According to Reuters, the highly talented 31-year-old explained: "If anything happened to my boobs, I'd be out for a few months and I'd probably be out a million dollars. …

    Bootnotes 30 Sep 16:03

  • Final insult for Full Tilt as Channel Islands kill its licence

    Poker site in Ponzi scheme probe

    The Channel Islands have revoked the gambling licence of Full Tilt Poker, the online gambling firm US prosecutors have accused of being a global Ponzi scheme. Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), which initially suspended the licence when the FBI closed the site down in the US, said in a statement today: It emerged …

    Policing 30 Sep 16:27

  • Android's scariest nightmare: resurgently sexy Microsoft

    Open...and Shut Will Redmond's new tarts out-seduce Google's frump?

    Microsoft, lost in the mobile woods for so long, may have finally found a way back. Despite some problems, Microsoft seems to be on the right track with Windows 8 for tablets, not to mention the long-awaited Mango release for smartphones. But Microsoft's potential resurgence may have as much to do with Google's Android …

    Mobile 30 Sep 16:38

  • Samsung offers Apple TOP-SECRET peace deal in Australia

    Korean firm wants to end patent dispute Down Under

    Samsung has held out the olive branch to Apple to end their patent dispute in Australia, a Sydney court was told today. The lawyers didn't elaborate on what the proposal might be, or indeed if it could be applicable in any of the other fronts in the Apple v Samsung IP clash, but Apple's lawyer Steven Burley said the company …

    Law 30 Sep 16:56

  • Pandemonium as Microsoft AV nukes Chrome browser

    'Pleasepleaseplease someone come up with a solution to this!'

    Users of Google's Chrome browser are in an uproar after antivirus software from Microsoft classified it as virulent piece of malware that should be deleted immediately. On Friday, a faulty signature update for both Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft Forefront incorrectly detected the Chrome executable file for Windows …

    Enterprise Security 30 Sep 17:24

  • Amazon's Kindle Fire is sold at a loss

    When losing money makes good business sense

    At $199, Amazon may be selling its new Kindle Fire at a loss, emulating King Gillette's marketing brainstorm: sell razors dirt cheap and make money on the blades. According to a "preliminary virtual estimate" by the research group IHS, the Fire's bill of materials cost is $191.65, barely squeaking in below the $199 list price …

    Mobile 30 Sep 18:31

  • Microsoft, IBM tussle for tech value runner-up

    Steve Jobs suppresses chuckle

    IBM appears on the verge of passing Microsoft in market capitalization for the first time in 15 years, as the two duke it out for the number-two tech company slot, behind Apple. IBM briefly surpassed Microsoft in stock value on Thursday, but as of noon Pacific time on Friday, Redmond was holding onto its number-two slot at $ …

    Business 30 Sep 19:21

  • NASA: 'Asteroid armageddon less likely than we feared'

    But what to do if one drops in to say goodbye?

    First the good news: there are fewer Earth-threatening asteroids than previously thought. The bad news: there are still plenty of dinosaur extinction–sized globe crushers out there, awaiting their turn. "The risk of a really large asteroid impacting the Earth before we could find and warn of it has been substantially reduced …

    Space 30 Sep 21:28

  • Google open sources JavaScript testing tools

    JS Test code moved from internal ops

    Google is open sourcing one of its key JavaScript testing tools in an effort to get developers to speed up web applications. Google JS Test is used internally on the V8 JavaScript engine using in Chrome. Google has attributed much of the speed increases it claims for the browser to the performance of the V8 engine, and the …

    Developer 30 Sep 23:47

  • Oracle in stiff competition with SF smut merchants

    OpenWorld Gentlemen’s clubs troll for OpenWorld rubes

    San Francisco is bracing itself for an influx of around 50,000 technologists as the Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne conferences kick off next week, and the city’s smut merchants – or gentlemen’s clubs as they prefer to be known – are making a play for attendees' attention. The week of the two conferences is apparent to most of …

    Developer 30 Sep 23:48