Server vendors make a lot of noise about how reliable their systems are, but how do they really stack up?

Intel released nine of its long-anticipated 'Lynnfield' microprocessors on Tuesday - two Core i7s, one Core i5, and six Xeons - with one nifty surprise at the low end of that server and workstation line.

T-Mobile and Orange are merging their UK operations to create the largest operator in the UK, with ownership split between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom.

The Russian competition regulator has dropped an investigation into Microsoft's decision to stop sales of XP in favour of Windows Vista.

A disturbing probe into the potential for apparently innocent biscuits' ability to do harm has revealed that an astounding 25 million Brits have been injured while indulging in some light coffee/tea break snack action, with 500 victims requiring hospital treatment.

WebcastThe recorded version of our recent Virtualization webcast is ready for your consumption. This beamed live last week from the sumptuous international studios of El Reg. But, knowing how hard you all work, we thought we’d record it and let you watch it at your leisure.

The Criminal Records Bureau has revealed that the longest 'enhanced disclosure' checks take more than four years to complete.

Hitachi Data Systems is announcing two new network-attached storage (NAS) products, bringing its enterprise NAS capabilities down to the midrange.

UpdatedBritish forces deployed in Afghanistan have been forced to beef up a hundred-million-pound military communications network using commercial equipment ordered from Israel.

Seven Japanese consumer electronics companies and chip makers are to launch their own CPU.

Space shuttle Discovery is preparing to undock later today from the International Space Station following the successful completion of mission STS-128.

Some people eventually regret tattoos as they age, but HTC has designed an Android-based smartphone that it hopes you’ll always want about your person.

Web application security among UK corporates is getting worse, according to audits carried out by CESG-accredited security consultancy NTA Monitor.

Two web hosting companies have been ordered to pay $32 million in damages after failing to convince a US jury that they were immune from responsibility for their users' actions.

Will ARM-based netbooks retail for under £100? The Taiwanese contract manufacturer behind the Foxconn brand seems to think so.

The T-Mobile and Orange brands will survive for at least the next two years in the UK as the telcos combine their operations here - though their employees might not.

Wireless charging mats may soon become the norm, according to the likes of Duracell. However, one firm has launched an alternative system for simultaneously recharging gadgets that still does away with the need for multiple cables.

AOL has hired ex-Yahooer! Brad Garlinghouse as president of its web and mobile communications division.

As teachers eye the register on the first day back at school this September, they'll be nervously keeping a sharp look-out for certain names which "strike fear into the nation's tutors".

Worldwide job prospects are showing some signs of improvement, or at least they are getting worse more slowly, while in the UK there are signs of improved prospects in financial and business services.

White papersAnd so to the Reg Library for our occasional plunder of the Whitepaper shelves. Today we are diving into the perennially popular topics of email management and security and have selected three vendor papers for your perusal. Registration is, as per, required.

InterviewPeter Robbins, Chief Executive of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) comes across as a genial politician – and a through-and-through pragmatist. He is in no way the moralising, censorious villain that some of the internet’s more Libertarian anti-censorship lobby would make him out to be.

ReviewDespite an early charge, powerline networking has suffered something of a stall over the past few years. The stuff is still shifting off the shelves, but we haven't seen much in the way of improvements in the technology.

A US lawsuit has alleged that Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's controversial anti-piracy software, is little better than spyware.

Mozilla won't release the next significant upgrade of Firefox until the final quarter of 2010.

Amazon and Apple are missing e-book viewer sales opportunities in the UK, a pollster has claimed.

Leccy TechIndian car maker Reva will reveal two new all-electric vehicles at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Metropolitan Police is congratulating itself for removing a question from Form 696, the controversial initiative "risk assessment" that allows London police to demand information from promoters. The police have also dropped the requirement that every performer and musician provide a phone number 14 days in advance of every gig.

Many Register readers seeking the Commodore 64 emulator application for the iPhone, which finally made it to Apple's App Store yesterday, were disappointed not to be able to find it. Here's why: Apple pulled it.

Updated:Colt Telecom customers might be finding themselves without internet access today after an undersea cable was cut.

DSEiA well-known Italian hi-tech firm says it has just delivered a trial batch of datalink earrings to the Italian army, intended to relay vital-signs telemetry from troops in combat back to the command post in the style of the movie Aliens.

Miscreants have created an exploit capable of crashing Windows boxes and triggering the infamous Blue Screen of Death.

Supercomputer maker Cray has kicked off the race to the end of the third quarter by landing a $40m contract to supply the Korea Meteorological Administration in South Korea with a next-generation parallel super that will eventually grow to 600 teraflops of raw number-crunching power.

Yes, it's childish, but we don't care. Here's something tasty for all of you using Novell's OES2:

IBM is making the rounds of institutional investors in the next few weeks to make the case why its stock is undervalued, and has posted a supplemental 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning reaffirming its revenue and profit guidance for 2009 and 2010.

DSEiSome days, the world of military whizz-tech can get to be a bit humdrum. Awesome as missiles, robots etc. are, they can sometimes pall. But today is no such day: today we on the Reg military whizz-tech desk have been interviewing the inventor of an actual, working powered exoskeleton - in his suit, powered up, with hundreds of pounds of armour and other military bric-a-brac strapped onto him.

First AMD's foundry biz, and now Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. Who will be next?

Microsoft's mischievous marketing mavens are at it again, this time Photoshopping some of the fun out of its upcoming Windows 7 faux launch parties.

Adobe and Oracle are both planning to delay their quarterly patch releases, albeit for different reasons.

Microsoft has placed a clutch of Silicon Graphics patents in the hands of those trying to defend Linux and open-source against trolls.

Patrick Byrne's unrelenting crusade against naked short selling has uncovered a gaping security hole in Yahoo!'s ever-popular message boards.

Any time a person crosses the US border, the Department of Homeland Security assigns travelers with a "risk assessment" score to divine their likelihood of any involvement with a terrorist cell or criminal activity.

Now that Intel's Lynnfield chips have been officially released, motherboard makers are rushing their consumer and enthusiast boards into the eager hands of waiting customers.

Programming errors on a website that helps commuters carpool to work are exposing sensitive information of workers for hundreds of employers in Southern California, including at least one military installation.

After losing its senior director of data center services and strategy to Steve Jobs and Apple, eBay has grabbed a replacement from Sun.

NASA's human spaceflight program appears headed on an "unsustainable trajectory" under its current budget, according to a committee charged with reviewing the US space program for the Obama administration.