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12th October 2011 Archive

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  • Solarcars are hot!

    WSC Rules of the road

    On Sunday 16 October, 39 solarcars will set off from Darwin to race the length of the Australia continent. Three thousand kilometres and four or five days later they can relax when they reach the finishing line in Adelaide. The Register’s Special Project Bureau will be there to cover the 2011 World Solar Challenge, for the …

    SPB 12 Oct 00:00

  • Users decide Fedora 17 will be 'Beefy Miracle'

    Beta of Fedora 16 gives faster booting and better GNOME

    The users of the Linux distribution Fedora have voted on the name for the 17th build of the code base. The top choice? Beefy Miracle. Fedora 17, due out in May of next year, is being named after animations built for the Anaconda installer in Fedora by one of the programmers. The hot dog pictures were designed for people who …

    Operating Systems 12 Oct 00:05

  • Android app maker settles claims it exposed sensitive files

    Photos, videos, and more shared by default

    The maker of a peer-to-peer application for Android handsets has agreed to settle federal charges that it was likely to cause users to unwittingly expose sensitive files to other people using the app. Angel Leon, developer of FrostWire for Android, agreed to redesign the app after officials of the Federal Trade Commission …

    ID 12 Oct 00:09

  • PCTV Broadway 2T network Freeview tuner

    Review Live TV anywhere on Android and iOS

    The marketing for the new Broadway 2T very much focuses on the iPhone and iPad, yet this network TV tuner chooses to omit some pretty obvious features when it comes to the iOS side of things. Global vision: PCTV's Broadway 2T The Broadway is similar to Elgato’s Netstream DTT, in that it houses a pair of standard-definition …

    reghardware 12 Oct 06:00

  • Which actor should play Steve in upcoming biopic?

    Insanely great casting needed

    After this week's announcement that the late Steve Jobs will be remembered through a Hollywood biopic, the obvious question facing Sony Pictures is… which actor gets the nod for the lead role? The film rights to Walter Isaacson's biography, due to be published later this month, was snapped up by Sony Pictures for a healthy sum …

    reghardware 12 Oct 07:00

  • ISPs end PM's web smut block dream

    It's just a bunch of guidelines

    The big four ISPs – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – have scoffed at suggestions that Brit web surfers could be forced to 'opt in' to view online grumble flicks. The proposed censorship, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, was understood to be part of a government-supported effort to shelter children from pornography, …

    Law 12 Oct 07:29

  • Canonical enterprise chief jumps for Eucalyptus cloud

    Toe-tripping sales re-org in action

    Ubuntu-steward Canonical has lost the executive heading up its enterprise business to cloud-floater Eucalyptus Systems. Paul Holt, Canonical's director of corporate services, has been named vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Eucalyptus. Holt replaced former Canonical executive Neil Levine on …

    Cloud 12 Oct 08:03

  • BlackBerry services splutter back into action, again

    RIM picks up pieces from epic outage

    BlackBerry users should be getting the message again today – RIM reckons it has found and fixed the latest fault although there's still some backlog to be cleared. The company tells us that yesterday's outage (as opposed to Monday's down-time which remains unexplained) was down to a "core switch failure", and a failed back-up …

    Networks 12 Oct 08:34

  • Flashback: The Quest for Identity

    Antique Code Show Totally recalled

    Nobody wants to wake up in the wilderness with no memory of how they got there - though it sounds eerily reminiscent of a typical Saturday morning in Camden Town. Who are you? More to the point, who am I? But that's just what's happened to Conrad Hart - and he doesn't even have leftover pizza for breakfast, poor guy. All he …

    reghardware 12 Oct 09:00

  • ViewSonic intros tablet sized to strike at iPad

    Android, good; Gingerbread, bad

    ViewSonic is taking aim right at the iPad - and would-be HP TouchPad owners - with a tablet sporting a 9.7in, 4:3 ratio IPS LCD screen. And, yes, like those fondleslabs this one, the ViewPad 10e, has a 1024 x 768 resolution - the best, we think, for folk who regularly switch from portrait to landscape and back again. The …

    reghardware 12 Oct 09:16

  • MS wipes out 23 flaws in October's Patch Tuesday

    IE, .NET and Silverlight get protection from code-executing bad boys

    As foreshadowed last week, this month’s round of Microsoft patches focuses on critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, .NET and Silverlight. The IE patch covers eight vulnerabilities that reach all the way up to remote code execution from malicious web pages, and has to be applied to all supported versions from IE6 to …

    Enterprise Security 12 Oct 09:19

  • Gartner: Social media biz to rake in $10.3bn in 2011

    Once-mocked sites scoop billions from ads and games

    Beancounters at Gartner reckon that the social media sector is on track to make $10.3bn (£6.5bn) in 2011, a 41.4 per cent increase from 2010, and to keep climbing after that. Worldwide revenues for the sector are forecast to grow to $14.9bn (£9.5bn) next year and $29.1bn (£18.6bn) in 2015 as the advertising dosh for display …

    Business 12 Oct 09:39

  • Seagate stocks sizeable storage hub for home entertainment

    In the box, on the box

    Seagate has unveiled its latest home entertainment hub, the GoFlex Cinema multimedia drive, a storage centre with a whopping 3TB storage. Ports are in abundance, with HDMI and composite-video, RCA stereo audio, S/PDIF optical audio and a USB connection to turn it into a removable drive. There's heaps of video format support …

    reghardware 12 Oct 09:43

  • Opera brings fondleslab-style reading to bog-standard web

    Oslo App developers: collect your P45s

    Opera has published a few simple CSS extensions that allow developers to create the “reading” experience found on contemporary newspaper, magazine and book tablet apps using web standards. The extensions enable “page-like” spatial navigation and layout, and the Norwegian company has submitted them to the W3C standards …

    Software 12 Oct 09:59

  • ALK prunes satnav app pricing

    UK, Europe maps up to £15 cheaper

    ALK has knocked up to £15 off the price of its CoPilot Live Premium satnav apps, ostensibly to herald the imminent arrival of iOS but also to drum up business for the Android version. Three apps are on offer: UK+Ireland, which drops a tenner to £20; Western Europe, which is now £30, down from £45; and Pan Europe, which will …

    reghardware 12 Oct 10:01

  • Round up those wireless devices before they cause trouble

    Stand up to consumerisation

    Shiny new mobile gizmos are driving the consumerisation of IT. As a systems administrator, I am naturally wary. Sure, it makes end-users happier, but they aren’t the ones who end up in front of the firing squad when security gets breached. Users don’t care about security. They never have and they never will; it is an …

    Enterprise Tech 12 Oct 10:19

  • Vodafone knocks over £120 off iPhone 4S

    Cheaper Apples

    Vodafone has lowered its upfront iPhone 4S fee by up to £120, in a move that brings the provider's pre-order pricing down to the level of its competitors. The 16GB version has been lowered to £239 on the Vodafone's most inexpensive price plan, a drop of £120. It's down £80 to £359 for the 32GB version, and a £70 shaving has …

    reghardware 12 Oct 10:21

  • Sony network ransacked in huge brute-force attack

    93,000 accounts broken into

    Sony has warned users against a massive bruteforce attack against PlayStation and Sony network accounts. The attack – which used password and user ID combinations from an unidentified third-party source – succeeded in compromising 60,000 PlayStation Network and 33,000 Sony Online Entertainment network accounts. These accounts …

    Security 12 Oct 10:37

  • Would you spend $300m to save 6ms?

    Blog Speed of light slows down traders

    How much is getting trades done 6 milliseconds quicker worth? About $300m, as it turns out. A new transatlantic fibre cable promises to reduce the languid 65-milliseconds it take to transmit a trade between London and New York time to a quicker 59ms. Traders are expected to line up to use the new service and pay extra for the …

    HPC Blog 12 Oct 10:54

  • Pick the right tools for your Office 2010 migration

    Paving the way

    Microsoft reports the take-up of Office 2010 is the fastest for a software product in the company’s history. All well and good, but some doubters remain. Microsoft is keen to mop up migration and has assembled a bag of tools to smooth the process. The company’s in-house tech evangelist, Simon May, refers to Office 2010 …

    Desktop 12 Oct 11:00

  • Telstra UK resellers' private nets go titsup

    Pushing the Daisy does not help connections

    UK-based telco reseller Daisy Communications has been suffering teething problems with its acquired Telstra customer base and associated supply agreements with BT. Daisy acquired Telstra's fixed reseller agreements around a year ago. BT is currently phasing out private connectivity technology Framestream, which affects around …

    Networks 12 Oct 11:14

  • Intel turns its back on the small screen

    Will design chips for computers, not TVs

    Intel will no longer try to get its system-on-a-chip products inside TVs having largely failed to persuade telly makers to do so. A company spokeswoman told Bloomberg that the designers and engineers working on Intel's CE chippery will shift their focus to products for computers, tablets and phones. Intel has been trying to …

    reghardware 12 Oct 11:19

  • Google loses battle for goggle.com

    Typosquatter's rights upheld – for now

    Google has lost its cybersquatting fight with typo-snaffle site goggle.com, enabling its owner to carry on enticing clumsy typists into signing up for pricey text messaging services. The company's complaint against the domain name's current registrant, Barbados-based David Csumrik, was dismissed on procedural grounds yesterday …

    Networks 12 Oct 11:29

  • RIM stands, staggers, falls again

    Just can't keep BlackBerry services up

    BlackBerry Messenger is down again, despite RIM's assurances that everything would be fine. It seems lots of people can't get connected and partners are receiving notifications about ongoing problems. Despite the fact that the Canadian company has replaced the failing core switch, the service fell down yet again, leaving many …

    Networks 12 Oct 11:34

  • Sony asks for 1.6m LCD TVs to be returned

    Bring back your Bravia before it burns

    Sony has warned owners of 40in Bravia televisions that it wants them all back after a handful of high-profile incidents in which the LCD TVs began emitting smoke or - in extreme cases - melted. Eleven incidents of dodgy sets have been reported in Japan, but the parts that malfunctioned have been built into in tellies that …

    reghardware 12 Oct 11:35

  • Dell opens new data centre in Slough

    Come friendly Dell and fall on Slough...

    The first tranche of Dell’s $1bn spending on cloud services will go to Slough in the UK, where the US computer giant is setting up a new data centre. The building – which will be packed with energy-efficient modular servers – should be operational by 2012, when it will start hosting data ranging from X-ray images to business …

    Cloud 12 Oct 11:41

  • It's the BIG email and office study

    Reg Tech Panel How important are your productivity apps?

    There's been a lot of talk recently about the imminent death of traditional email and office applications to be replaced by shiny new web apps all served from the Cloud. Now, we know the world changes slowly and this won't happen overnight, or be suitable for all. But there are a lot of old Exchange or Notes installations out …

    Tech Panel 12 Oct 11:50

  • RIM BlackBerry Torch 9810

    Review Leading light?

    The Torch 9810 is the second of RIM’s recent hat-trick of BlackBerry devices to hit the shelves. Indeed, you might have heard there are five, but currently only three models will be made available in the UK. Shining examples? RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9810 The Bold 9900 was a straight-up Qwerty device but this one hides its …

    reghardware 12 Oct 12:00

  • Intel touts energy-use gadgetry for planet admirers

    Eco boffins set up lab in Ireland

    ERIC Intel is opening a new energy and sustainability lab, headquartered in Ireland, which will focus on getting consumers to improve their energy efficiency. The lab will push out handy gadgets that allow people to discover more about how they’re using energy. Intel CTO Justin Rattner, who announced the lab at the European …

    Science 12 Oct 12:01

  • Datatec on the hunt for acquisitions

    First half results for 2011 look bright

    Channel conglomerate Datatec is on the lookout for further acquisition targets after pushing up its top and bottom lines in the first of the year. The parent of distributor Westcon and integrator Logicalis pushed up group sales 14 per cent to $2.44bn (£1.54bn) and profit before tax climbed 109 per cent to $60.7m (£38.5m) in H1 …

    Channel Register 12 Oct 12:01

  • Telcos pave the way for iPhone 4S global roaming

    CDMA handsets with unlocked SIM slots for GSM networks

    US carriers selling the CDMA-enabled version of the iPhone 4S will unlock the SIM slot, so international roaming can be achieved by dropping a local SIM into the phone. That's important as, despite Apple branding the 4S a "world phone", there aren't many roaming agreements between the CDMA and GSM networks that the 4S supports …

    Networks 12 Oct 12:14

  • US White Space XML blueprints emitted

    Database synchronisation, the hipster web way

    Eight of the companies planning to run US databases of White Space have published the XML schema, and polling protocol, they intend to use to keep their data synchronised. The two documents, Database Interoperability Specification (65-page PDF/1.2MB, very XMLy) and the Channel Calculation Guideline (19-page PDF/965kb, very …

    Networks 12 Oct 12:44

  • Big Blue 'made a move to buy BlueArc'

    Blocks and Files: Storage insider says HDS was buying against the clock

    HDS was prompted to buy BlueArc because IBM was making a move against the fast filer firm, or so a source says. Recall that big storage array shipper Hitachi Data Systems had a reseller agreement with BlueArc for some time, and that BlueArc uses HDS disk shelves as backing store behind its hardware-accelerated NAS heads. Then …

    Blocks and Files 12 Oct 13:01

  • UK gov needs better data skills to cut spending

    MPs want to know who to blame if £81bn target isn't reached

    The Cabinet Office's Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG), set up to lead efforts to cut government spending by £6bn in 2010-11, should set up management information systems to measure progress accurately and objectively, the public accounts committee has said. The committee's report on the ERG's role in improving value for money …

    Government 12 Oct 13:20

  • High Court: Computer simulations can get patent protection

    Smacks down IPO on drill design sim ruling

    The High Court said that the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) had wrongly applied UK patent law when assessing four patent applications for computer simulations of designs made by oilfield company Halliburton Energy. The IPO had previously ruled that the company's computer simulations were mental acts which cannot be …

    Law 12 Oct 13:40

  • Will CEO Meg spare HP's PC biz?

    Decisions, decisions ... due this month

    HP may not lop off its PC biz after all: CEO Meg Whitman is still chewing the stats and weighing up the impact on its other hardware operations. Whitman is set to make the final decision at the end of this month, though HP's board were already getting cold feet before the exit of former CEO Leo Apotheker, who hatched the plan …

    Channel Register 12 Oct 13:51

  • Gov IT slasher gets top civil service role

    Ian Watmore promoted in wake of 'Sir Humphrey's' exit

    The man tasked with slimming government IT spending – yet who tried to inject MacBooks into Whitehall – will step up to a more powerful role after civil service grandee Sir Gus O’Donnell retires in December. Ian Watmore, chief operating officer of the Efficiency and Reform Group, which claimed to have saved Whitehall £3bn over …

    Public Sector 12 Oct 14:01

  • Win 8 haters are just scared of change, say MS bosses

    Start screen tweaked to please crybabies

    Microsoft has tweaked the Windows 8 interface following feedback from last month's developer preview. The company will let you customize the start screen in a move that'll likely favour the Metro UI-version of Windows 8 that Microsoft is targeting at fondleslabs, if we've parsed a lengthy blog post here correctly. The lengthy …

    Software 12 Oct 14:21

  • Thai floods halt WD hard disk fabs

    Water and high-tech factories don't mix well

    Western Digital has temporarily suspended disk drive-related production in its Thailand sites close to Bangkok due to severe flooding. Flooding in Thailand is sparking transportation and utility infrastructure headaches with some supply facilities and peoples' homes inundated. WD has some 37,000 employees in its Thai …

    Storage 12 Oct 14:41

  • Brit micro-biz needs tax breaks, promotion, cuddles

    And that could mean you

    Britain’s creative micro-businesses – spanning fields as diverse as software, music and fashion – are the key to growth, according to a new study. Centre-left think tank Demos finds that these outfits, typically employing fewer than five people, are more resilient than other sectors, and recommends several measures to nurture …

    Business 12 Oct 15:01

  • German states defend use of 'Federal Trojan'

    Skype-snooping Bundestrojaner legal, insists gov

    Five German states have admitted using a controversial backdoor Trojan to spy on criminal suspects. Samples of the so-called R2D2 (AKA "0zapftis") Trojan came into the possession of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which published an analysis of the code last weekend. German federal law allows the use of malware to eavesdrop on …

    Malware 12 Oct 15:19

  • Ads watchdog slaps down Sony smartphone battery life claim

    Maker didn't mention 'lab conditions'

    The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told Sony Ericsson never again to claim that a smartphone's battery will run for more than 18 days on a single charge without making it clear in what conditions that battery life can be achieved. The ruling follows a complaint from a punter who spotted the statement, "standby time …

    reghardware 12 Oct 15:35

  • Huawei homes in on Euro biz market

    Comment Chinese IT titan spreads its wings

    Step aside server and storage big boys: make space for a new kid on the European enterprise server and storage block. Huawei Enterprise has arrived and is intending to make waves. Huawei is a Cisco-size Chinese telecommunications and IT supplier. It was founded in 1988 by a small group of entrepreneurs, some with Western …

    Storage 12 Oct 15:38

  • Scottish rats scoff optic fibre, take down broadband

    Two-day Virgin Media outage caused by rodents

    Strong-jawed rats brought down broadband services in the east of Scotland this week by chewing through fibre optic cables, Virgin Media told The Reg today in a statement. Virgin Media phone, television and broadband customers in the Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and Leven areas suffered outages and intermitent coverage for a period of …

    Networks 12 Oct 16:01

  • Microsoft pops Hadoop into SQL Server and Azure

    PASS Summit Denali becomes SQL Server 2012, out by next summer

    Microsoft has announced that it will integrate Hadoop into its forthcoming SQL Server 2012 release and Azure platforms, and has committed to full compatibility with the Apache code base. The news was announced in the opening keynote of Redmond’s PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle on Wednesday. The first technology preview of the …

    Software 12 Oct 16:06

  • Windows 7 overtakes XP - finally

    Most dominant desktop OS, says web traffic abacus

    Windows 7 has, finally, become the world’s most popular desktop operating system. It overtook Windows XP in the first ten days of October with a 40.18 per cent share of the market, according to statistics gathered by Statcounter. At the latest measurement, 38.66 per cent of desktop computers in use online are powered by XP …

    Operating Systems 12 Oct 16:19

  • Gulf scheme reveals BlackBerry SWP tap-cash support

    It takes five to dance this tango

    MasterCard has announced it will be deploying PayPass in BlackBerrys in the United Arab Emirates, showing RIM's support for the Single Wire Protocol in the process. It isn't clear which RIM handsets will be able to use the system, which will allow Etisalat customers within UAE to pay for goods with a tap of the phone. But …

    Mobile 12 Oct 16:38

  • Pano's virtual desktops go from zero to hero

    Sysadmin blog Forget thin, zero clients are the new slim

    Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a common industry term that has come to mean "all the real work is done on the servers". While VDI technically refers only to VMWare’s implementation of this ideal (now called VMWare View), in practice the term has been expanded to include all similar technologies. In a VDI setup, the …

    Hardware 12 Oct 17:01

  • Overland soups up SnapServer

    Adds Geoff Barrall for extra pizzazz

    Overland Storage has souped up its SnapServers with Drobo-style dynamic volume resizing and RAID. This is what the Nasdaq fuss is about. The new SnapServers can mix disk types and offer a single storage pool from which volumes are drawn and protected. There are two models – the DX1 and DX2 – which replace the existing 410 and …

    Storage 12 Oct 17:28

  • Cisco VXI turns virty desktops into server sales

    Are you (virtually) experienced?

    Cisco Systems has been looking for a killer app that will sell its "California" Unified Computing Systems and, after a year of selling preconfigured systems running XenDesktop with Citrix Systems, the company reckons that virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) just might be the ticket to expanding Cisco's presence in the data …

    Infrastructure 12 Oct 17:39

  • Gigantic KRAKEN fingered in prehistoric murder mystery

    Prof reckons monster was also a Triassic Van Gogh

    Staring at a pile of fossilised ichthyosaur bones in the famous Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada, paleontologist Mark McMenamin had a sudden insight. It occurred to him that he might have cracked the great mystery of this ancient Triassic site. He reckoned that the carefully lined-up bones of the ichthyosaurs, of the …

    Science 12 Oct 18:01

  • Dell bulks up storage line – with compression product

    Cramming your hot data into the steaming DX6000 pool

    Dell is launching its first Ocarina data compression product, an adjunct to its DX6000 object storage product line. The DX6000 products twin Dell hardware with OEM'd Caringo object storage software. The DX6000G server is a clusterable storage compression node that works with DX6000 storage. It uses software from Ocarina, a …

    Storage 12 Oct 19:00

  • Man charged in nude celebrity hacking case

    Operation 'Hackerazzi' uncovers 50 victims

    A Florida man hacked into the email accounts of actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, and as many as 50 other celebrities and made off with nude photos, movie scripts, and other personal information, federal prosecutors said. Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida, obtained personal information about his …

    Security 12 Oct 19:54

  • iOS update woes prompt gnashing of teeth for Apple fans

    Updated Mass errors rain on iCloud launch

    Apple released the much-anticipated iOS 5 update for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches on Wednesday, an update that was almost immediately met with error messages by throngs of users trying to download it from the company's servers. The errors, according to accounts on Apple support pages and this Cult of Mac report, carried …

    Mobile 12 Oct 21:09

  • Planetary exploration under threat, says space pioneer

    Space Launch System attention misdirected, Friedman says

    Immediate past president of the Planetary Society, Lou Friedman, is worried that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is putting NASA’s planetary exploration at risk. Writing at The Space Review, Friedman – who founded the Planetary Society in 1980 with Carl Sagan and Caltech professor and Mars exploration luminary Bruce …

    Space 12 Oct 21:36

  • iPhone 4 prototype duo get a year’s probation

    Must pay Apple $250 for drink-fueled plan

    The two men who sold an iPhone prototype left in a Silicon Valley bar have escaped jail and will instead serve one year’s probation, 40 hours of community service and pay $250 in restitution to Apple. Sage Wallower and Brian Hogan, both in their 20s, were charged after Hogan found a prototype iPhone 4 in the Gourmet Haus …

    Mobile 12 Oct 21:37

  • IBM adds platform services to SmartCloud

    Projects 200 million IaaS and PasS million users by 2012

    System vendors have two choices: start their own clouds using their own iron or lose control of customers to someone who does. And they also have to give customers a chance to build similar private clouds based on their wares. IBM, like Dell, Oracle, and soon Hewlett-Packard when it announces its cloud, has decided to build its …

    Infrastructure 12 Oct 22:00

  • Oz tech retailer threatens parallel import strategy

    JB to emulate Kogan?

    The phrase “grey market” is about to get a word-of-the-day workout, with tech retailer JB Hi-Fi becoming the latest company to eye parallel importation as a survival strategy in the face of online competition from overseas. As The Register noted back in January, local bricks-and-mortar retailers are squeezed by manufacturers …

    Business 12 Oct 22:56

  • Cloud hub an Australian opportunity: report

    MacTel, Fujitsu, vendors set up OzHub

    Data “residence” in cloud computing is again in the spotlight, with Macqurie Telecom, Fujitsu ANZ, InfoPlex and VMWare joining together to create the OzHub alliance. The group launched by commissioning a report from Lateral Economics, called The potential for cloud computing services in Australia, which has identified a …

    Cloud 12 Oct 23:30

  • Seattle superhero arrested for assault

    Costumed saddo pummeled outside city nightclub

    A Seattle self-styled “superhero” has been arrested on four counts of assault after intervening in a fight early on Sunday morning. Phoenix Jones, aka Benjamin Fodor, is well known in Seattle for wandering the streets in a homemade superhero costume seeking out wrongdoers. But he appears to have bitten off more than he could …

    Odds and Sods 12 Oct 23:53