The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

The Week in Summary

  1. Friday, 27 November 2009

    What ever happened to storing pics with electron cannons?

    This Old Box Blue Blue's digital photo beam

    Features make the system. After all, what good is a gaming rig without superfluous neon-blue lights, an iMac without the almost-matronly lack of sharp edges, or a Verizon phone not forged by the souls of the damned upon an altar of bones?1 This simple and self-evident truth carries over to storage systems as well. Normally, …

    The Register 27 Nov 20:03

    Fujitsu gung-ho on eight-core 'Venus' Sparc

    SC09 Tofu super glue

    Is Japan's 10 petaflops supercomputer on the chopping block? Fujitsu won't say. But it's still bullish on the Sparc chips meant to drive the thing. The word out of Japan last week was that a budget-cutting panel was recommending that the government cut back on its supercomputer spending habit, with the $1.2bn "Project Keisoku" …

    The Register 27 Nov 18:02

    Asus' tablet Eee takes on multi-touch

    More fingers and more storage

    Asus has added a multi-touch display to its touchscreen T91, apparently resulting in the world's first convertible tablet netbook featuring a multi-touch screen that supports Windows 7 many-finger gestures. Asus' T91 - now with multi-touch The 8.9in display on Asus’ T91 – released in Blighty during July – could only cope …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 16:09

    Cyborg MIT prof touts iPhone-controlled power-jumping legs

    Other bionic plugins offer 7' height, climbing claws

    A cyborg MIT professor has developed and tested innovative lithium-ion powered prosthetic feet which can thrust a wearer off the ground just as normal biological ones can - or be adjusted (using an iPhone app, of course) for greater power, perhaps allowing remarkable leaping and running performance. Professor Hugh Herr is …

    The Register 27 Nov 16:07

    Web host Daily recovers after Tux-themed defacement

    Lock-down follows cartoon penguin attack

    UK-based web host Daily has largely restored services following an apparent hack attack on Thursday that replaced content on some sites it hosts with pictures of cartoon penguins. The images of Linux penguin Tux parodied the 'hear/see/speak no evil' monkeys". Text included on the defacements claimed the hack in the name of ' …

    The Register 27 Nov 15:56

    Royal Navy sailors given PSPs as study aids

    Tar very much

    The Senior Service has begun issuing PlayStation Portables to its sailors in an attempt to make them... er... study. Under the PSP-per-sailor scheme – conceived at HMS Collingwood, a maritime warfare school in Hampshire - the handheld console will used by Navy personnel for reading coursework on while away at sea. As part of …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 15:53

    Sh*t the bed, it's Comment of the Week

    CoTFW Or feel free to read a storage story instead

    It's Friday, and across the internet is heard the thin cry from a thousand (OK, maybe a couple of hundred) hapless souls forced against their will to read Comment of the Week. O cruel fate! If only they were given choice as to what to click on. Well, too late now, bozos. It'll look like you've read it in the stats even if you …

    The Register 27 Nov 15:33

    Smut-ladened spam disguises WoW Trojan campaign

    Pwned and porned

    A malicious spam campaign that attempts to harvest online game passwords under the guise of messages containing smutty photos is doing the rounds. The tainted emails have subject line such as "Do you like to find a girlfriend like me?", and an attached archive file called "my photos.rar". The archive contains photos of young …

    The Register 27 Nov 15:12

    Generators and UPS fail in London datacentre outage

    Tatasup

    Tata's datacentre in the east end of London went titsup for two-hours on Thursday evening, following a power cut. Backup power systems also failed, downing servers belonging to hosting providers throughout three floors of the Stratford facility at about 5.20pm. Firms including C4L, ServerCity and Coreix were hit by the outage …

    The Register 27 Nov 15:12

    Just how political is your IT organisation?

    The impact of the non-technical

    For this week, the last in this workshop series, we were looking at the near-future, with particular focus on how we deliver server resources and a central question – are we any closer to the nirvana of dynamic IT delivery? I’d love to say we’ve learned a lot from your feedback. What we can say is this is not an area that …

    The Register 27 Nov 15:07

    (Back) into The Valley

    Forgotten Tech Remembering a BASIC coding classic from 1982

    I first explored The Valley late in 1982. My method of entry: a Research Machines 380Z. I loved it and didn't want to leave. But the school lunch period ended at 1.30 and the computer room was locked then, so I had to wait a day or two until I could get time on the RM again. The Valley had been hacked onto the 380Z by a guy …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 14:19

    Head-cam video used to OK Arkansas cop kill

    Vid 'This will make for more polite encounters with police'

    In a case which may offer a glimpse of the future of law enforcement, an American policeman has been cleared of wrongdoing after shooting a man dead - with the aid of video and audio from a headset recorder he wore during the incident. After the decision, the video was released to the public. KFSM 5 News broadcast this report …

    The Register 27 Nov 14:09

    British laggards told to embrace their digital futures

    Dad's tech army limbers up

    The BCS has launched a website for technology laggards who are failing to do their duty by not feeling the benefits of an information-driven society. The Chartered Institute for IT, formerly known as the British Computer Society, reckons only 20 per cent of the UK population are "information-savvy citizens". BCS president …

    The Register 27 Nov 14:09

    FreeBSD version 8.0 lands

    I trust you can handle this contraption, Q?

    FreeBSD has released version 8.0 of its beefy Unix-like operating system. The outfit has published a long list of improvements and new features that have been added to the OS. Notable highlights in the latest release include binary compatibility with Fedora 10 Linux software and network stack virtualisation. Version 13 of the …

    The Register 27 Nov 13:50

    Reg readers lay out their selection criteria for app packages

    Poll results It's not just about business functionality

    While software sales and marketing people often try to convince business people that the technical stuff doesn’t matter that much when selecting an application package, Reg readers beg to differ. Indeed, over a hundred of you participating in our recent mini-poll were clear in what matters from an IT perspective to ensure …

    The Register 27 Nov 13:39

    India plans its own net snoop system

    Indian IMP pilot for mid-2010

    On the anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Indian government has announced its own version of the UK's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) - a massive expansion of communications surveillance for the internet age. A pilot of the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) will begin by June next year, communications …

    The Register 27 Nov 13:15

    Panasonic DMC-GH1 Micro Four-Thirds camera

    Review HD video with a super smooth lens, what's not to like?

    Are we at the point where people will only buy one product to film and take great stills? Instead of camcorders that can take the odd sub-10Mp image, camera manufacturers are coming at it from the other side and offering HD video on models previously only equipped for stills. The Lumix DMC-GH1 is the camera that Panasonic left …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 13:02

    IBM shows off Power7 HPC monster

    SC09 Big Blue unveils big box: Crowd goes wild

    IBM likes to go on and on about the transaction processing power and I/O bandwidth of its System z mainframes, but now there is a new and much bigger kid on the block. Its name is the Power Systems IH supercomputing node, based on the company's forthcoming Power7 processors and a new homegrown switching system that blends …

    The Register 27 Nov 13:02

    Google and Murdoch - a divorce made in heaven?

    Analysis It's about money, but not bribes from Bing

    Microsoft is known for its robust methods, but the widespread belief that it is attempting to 'buy' the news, offering to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to de-index its news sites from Google speaks of extreme brutality, even by the Borg's standards. And think, people - if Microsoft really is offering to bribe major publishers …

    The Register 27 Nov 13:02

    'Alienated' gamer sues WoW for ruining life

    Industro-pop muso subpoenaed in terribly sad case

    An obsessive World of Warcraft player is suing the makers of the game for ruining his life, quoth a gleeful Grauniad this week. Erik Estavillo is seeking $1m (£600,000) in damages, claiming the orc-tastic roleplaying game has turned him into a blank-eyed basketcase who can no longer function in the real world (as the lawsuit …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:44

    It's here at last: The Evolution of x86 Server Estates Report

    Tech Panel Modernisation drivers and practicalities

    First of all, a big thank you to all the Reg readers that took the time to fill in our monster survey on x86 server environments, drivers and plans. A full 979 of you responded, which gave us plenty of material to crunch. We now return the favour, in the shape of a report which we hope provides a comprehensive view of what …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:43

    Oracle talking turkey to Eurocrats

    Hearing in two weeks

    Oracle and the European Competition Commission will meet 10 December to try and thrash out an agreement that will let its takeover of Sun go ahead. The deal has already been approved by US regulators, leading some US senators to accuse the Commission of deliberately dragging its feet in order to benefit Oracle's European …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:32

    Green politician says oral sex is part of being Swedish

    Free speech comes naturally here

    A Green Party politician has declared that part of being Swedish is the opportunity to swing both ways during the course of a single day in the interests of free speech. Sofia Bothorp delivered that could well be the Swedish tourist board's new slogan during a local council debate on Swedishness. According to The Local, …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:31

    Apple tweaks T&Cs for Blighty customers

    Famed code of silence (somewhat) broken by OFT

    Apple has agreed to rejig its terms and conditions to make them "clearer and fairer" for UK consumers, after the Office of Fair Trading raised concerns about them. The OFT confirmed in a statement this morning that it had identified a number of areas where the Mac, iPod and iPhone vendor's contracts of agreement with its …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:12

    BOFH: Made of win

    Episode 16 Pushing the gold envelope

    “We should enter one of those Innovation in IT awards!” the Boss burbles one day, sidling up to the PFY and myself in a pseudo-ingratiating manner. “We should what now?” the PFY asks. “IT awards. We should enter one – it’s a great way of raising the company’s profile.” “Oh, the company’s going to some awards?” I ask. “No …

    The Register 27 Nov 12:02

    Vendors to push 12in netbooks in 2010

    As 10in models get cheaper to battle smartbooks

    Having steered us first from 7in netbooks to 9in models, and then from those to 10in machines, it now seems Asus, Acer and co. will next year be encouraging us to upgrade to 12in laptops. Recent research from market watcher Canalys showed that, during 2009, the 10in screen became the de facto standard for new netbooks. Rather …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 11:56

    Pentagon world-sim tool making good progress, say profs

    Computer suggests a savage bombing campaign, Mr President

    Computer boffins in America report that their plans to create a lifelike virtual Matrix-style simulation of the entire world and human race are proceeding well. Rather than a sinister yet totally implausible plan to farm people in tanks for electric power, the idea here is that America might try out various national-security …

    The Register 27 Nov 11:48

    Toshiba worker arrested for selling copy limit busting SW

    You can't do that in Japan

    A Toshiba employee in Japan has been arrested for selling copy limit breaking software, letting buyers copy digital TV programmes on Japanese recording and playback products as much as they liked. The copy limit software is called Dubbing10 and lets digital media device users copy a recorded digital TV programme up to ten …

    The Register 27 Nov 11:38

    Alternative perspectives on business productivity

    Webcast Measure, consider, action

    On the December 3 at 10am we’ll be streaming a live event into your PC that pulls together a rack of business productivity experts to give you some free, actionable advice on driving productivity gains from your operations. To some, the word 'productivity' just means squeezing more out of an already-overstretched workforce. To …

    The Register 27 Nov 11:36

    McKinnon family 'devastated' by Home Sec's latest knock-back

    Options running out for 'suicidal' Pentagon hacker

    Solicitors for Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon are planning a 11th-hour judicial review after Home Secretary Alan Johnson decided new medical evidence was insufficient reason for him to step in and block US extradition proceedings. McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp told the BBC she was "devastated" by the ruling. "Gary has been in …

    The Register 27 Nov 11:22

    Sony Ericsson admits 'PlayStation phone' woes

    Touchscreens Aino workin'

    Sony Ericsson has been hit by a second high-profile smartphone setback this week, admitting that its Aino "PlayStation phone" has run into technical troubles just days after its Satio phone was withdrawn from sale in the UK. Sony Ericsson has admitted touchscreen troubles with Aino The company told Register Hardware today …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 10:50

    IPPR calls for National Policing Agency

    Cop IT cops it

    Existing national police organisations and their IT systems should be transferred to a new body, according to a report. The National Policing Agency would be created by merging the National Policing Improvement Agency and those parts of the Association of Chief Police Officers that currently coordinate or deliver national …

    The Register 27 Nov 10:44

    How can I make an old CPU SSE 2 compliant?

    Q&A Chip conundrum

    I’ve an old desktop that runs on an AMD Athlon XP2500+ and recently found I couldn't install new software because the CPU is not SSE 2 compliant. Barring changing the processor is there anyway of getting around the problem, perhaps with software?

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 10:34

    Juggling server virtualisation and database workloads

    Lab Bananas and chocolate, or chalk and cheese?

    As the conversation moves from generic virtualisation of ‘quick win’ workloads such as web servers and print servers, development and test environments, one-off applications and so on, the question arises – where does server virtualisation go next? One potential area is to see virtual machines as a target for database …

    The Register 27 Nov 10:27

    MSI intros AMD 'Congo'-based thin'n'light laptop

    New Wind

    AMD's answer to arch-rival Intel's CULV - Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage - processor series is making its way into laptops. MSI has just taken the wraps off the Wind 12 U230, a 12in machine based on two of AMD's 'Congo' chips. The parts' go-to-market name are the Athlon Neo MV40 and the Athlon Neo X2 L335, being single- and dual- …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 10:25

    Uni seeks 'research officer' for sex trade 'fieldwork'

    Experience of lapdancing and vice girls? Apply here

    It's well known that the online revolution is slowly but surely killing off the treepulp press. The chattering classses worry more about losing their broadsheets, but the syndrome is just as deadly for more downmarket papers. However, there's at least one ray of hope out there for distressed tabloid journos, where they can use …

    The Register 27 Nov 10:19

    Gov net disconnections could breach EU law

    May scupper free Wi-Fi too

    The Government's Digital Economy Bill could be in breach of EU laws, according to an internet law expert. Professor Lilian Edwards has also warned that the Bill could make it impossible to operate a free wireless network legally. The Bill, published last week, contains an outline of the Government's plans to terminate internet …

    The Register 27 Nov 10:15

    Splinter Cell hack smells more like publicity stunt

    Pwn or PR?

    Ubisoft said that the website of its popular video game Splinter Cell had been hacked on Thursday. However circumstantial evidence suggests the hack is more likely to be a publicity stunt than a genuine cyber assault. Visitors to the Splinter Cell website are been greeted by a message in Russian. This is followed a bit.ly link …

    The Register 27 Nov 10:02

    Half of Sony tellies to go 3D by 2013, says exec

    Vaio PCs and PS3s too

    Half of the new TVs Sony releases will be 3D capable by 2013, the electronics giant has claimed. But it admitted that hardware sales will be governed by the availability of content. Speaking earlier this week in Japan, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Executive Deputy President of Sony, revealed that 3D sets will account for between 30 and …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 09:55

    Carphone credits Tiscali for growth

    Ringing up profits

    Carphone Warehouse said today it is on track to split its business into retail and telecoms arms by early next year, and it expects profits to be higher than previously predicted. For the six months ended 30 September the company made sales of £789m, up 13 per cent on last year. Profit after tax was £20m and CPW now expects …

    The Register 27 Nov 09:45

    O2 gives birth to GiffGaff in gust of gabble

    Commentard customers create great ignorance cache

    GiffGaff, O2's venture into democratic MVNOs, has launched, and its forums are already groaning with customers asking inane questions that other customers struggle to answer. GiffGaff is supposed to be run by its customers, who can earn credit or cash by answering other customers' questions, signing up more people, or …

    The Register 27 Nov 09:02

    Google, Microsoft, and Amazon - the cloud dating game

    Why you need a cloud (whatever that is)

    What's a cloud? The likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google can't agree on an answer to that question. But they insist it exists. And they're sure it's the answer to all your problems. Which means there's also a difference of opinon when it comes to your problems. But, really, all will be well if you just move to the cloud. …

    The Register 27 Nov 08:02

    Acer Aspire 1810TZ 11.6in CULV notebook

    Review Small laptop, enormous battery life

    So you want a small notebook, but you're put off by the average netbook's puny graphics, relatively low res screen and limited-horsepower Atom processor. What do you do? Acer's Aspire Timeline 1810TZ: big name, small notebook We think you could do a lot worse than Acer's Aspire 1810TZ. Sony's skinny and compact Vaio X is …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 08:02

    Super Micro primes 'Magny-Cours' Opterons

    SC09 Intel Nehalems too. And, yes, Tukwilas

    Super Micro may not be a name-brand, tier-one server maker, but it's the motherboard and whitebox maker behind scads of tier two, three, and four server sellers around the globe. And that's because Super Micro gets out in front - and stays there - whenever a new technology is coming to market. A year ago, at the SC08 …

    The Register 27 Nov 07:02

    iPhone upgrades - a one-way control-freak street

    Comment Destroying the past for your own damn good

    For over 30 years, your personal computer has been, well, your personal computer. You could install whatever software you liked - provide it was compatible. After installing an app or an operating system, if you then decided you preferred the previous version, you were free to uninstall the new and revert to the old. But …

    The Register 27 Nov 07:02

    Vodafone offers free mobile internet

    Strings attached

    If you aren’t already on an all-you-can-surf mobile web package and can’t find an unsecured Wi-Fi network nearby, save some pennies today by logging on with Vodafone. For one day only – today – the network carrier has promised to waive all costs associated with surfing the web from your mobile phone, letting you experience the …

    Reg Hardware 27 Nov 06:02

    Sun's Open Storage roadmap revealed

    New high-end and entry-level products

    Sun will introduce a new high-end 7000 series storage product in the second quarter of next year. According to an Australian report the device is codenamed "Anago", a Japanese term for a congor eel, and will have up to 384 3.5-inch SAS hot-swap hard drives and a 6Gbit/s SAS 2 switch fabric. An expansion rack can double …

    The Register 27 Nov 00:02

  2. Thursday, 26 November 2009

    Johnson refuses to intervene in McKinnon extradition

    'No discretion' says Home Sec

    Gary McKinnon could be extradited to the US to face hacking charges before Christmas, after the Home Secretary declared he would not be intervening in the case. Alan Johnson had frozen extradition proceedings against 43 year old McKinnon - accused of hacking into the Pentagon's computers in 2002 - in the middle of last month. …

    The Register 26 Nov 22:23

    Icon design for dummies fanbois

    Mac Secrets Going Rogue (Amoeba)

    This month, we broaden the bailiwick of the Mac Secrets column. From now on, I’ll cover not only undocumented Apple APIs and programming techniques, but also other topics of Mac developer interest. This time around, I examine the thorny issue of application icon design. Why thorny? Well, even if you can churn out awesome code …

    The Register 26 Nov 22:02

    Big Blue murders Cell blade servers

    Power chips live on. In game consoles

    IBM's QSZ2 Cell-based blade server received nary a mention at last week's SC09 supercomputing trade show in Oregon. And for good reason. Top brass in IBM's Systems and Technology Group killed the product off about 18 months ago, according to sources familiar with situation. The QSZ2 blade server was slated to use a future …

    The Register 26 Nov 20:03

    Mozilla dishes up fourth Firefox 3.6 beta alongside deep-fried turkey

    A generous dash of sugar in your sweet potato mash

    Praise be - Mozilla has spun out yet another beta for Firefox 3.6, the next iteration of the outfit's popular browser, just in time for Thanksgiving. A finalised version of Firefox 3.6, based on the Gecko 1.9.2. engine, will rock up next month - unless Mozilla is hit by any last-minute showstopping bugs, that is. The Firefox …

    The Register 26 Nov 16:58

    'World's largest' BitTorrent tracker Mininova kneecapped

    Probably not so popular without copyright torrents

    Popular BitTorrent site Mininova has been forced to delist virtually all its trackers, after a legal defeat by a Dutch rights holder organisation. The move may signal the end for what billed itself as the world's largest BitTorrent site. Mininova was sued by BREIN, a coalition of Dutch publishing, music film and software …

    The Register 26 Nov 16:57

    Corel Holdings scoops up cash-strapped Corel Corp

    Send in the snow plough

    Struggling software vendor Corel Corporation has been bailed out by Corel Holdings, a limited partnership controlled by the company's majority investor Vector Capital. Earlier this week the WordPerfect, Paint Shop Pro and WinZip software maker confirmed in an amended filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that …

    The Register 26 Nov 16:26

    McNealy's inflatable 'blimp' pleasure-dome angers neighbours

    'Muffled slapshots' echo across leafy valley

    Sun boss Scott McNealy has installed a giant, blimp-like inflatable dome in his garden, where he entertains companions. Angry neighbours have complained about loud cries and the noise of muffled "slapshots" which "ring out across the valley". According to the San Mateo County Times, McNealy's pleasure dome is regarded in the …

    The Register 26 Nov 16:25

    EU agency runs rule over ID cards for online banking logins

    What could possibly go wrong?

    A study by an EU cybersecurity agency into the use of electronic identity cards for online banking has highlighted seven types of vulnerability and 15 possible threats. ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) compared the suitability of smart eID cards to other authentication techniques for online banking …

    The Register 26 Nov 16:16

    Christmas debut for Rock Band Network?

    Rock on(line)

    Gamers uninspired by Rock Band’s 1000-strong track catalogue could be strumming along to their personal music collections by Christmas, MTV Games has said. News of Rock Band Network (RBN) emerged earlier this year. It is designed to let gamers turn almost any track in their collection into a version playable in the Rock Band …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 16:14

    Apple ramps up share of US retail PC sales takings

    Kerching! - for the moment

    Apple accounted for just under half - 48 per cent - of all the money spent on desktop computers in US retailers during October 2009, market watcher NPD has revealed. That figure is a gain on the 33 per cent of revenue Apple took in October 2008. It's not all good news for the company: revenues from Apple laptops dropped from …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 16:02

    Aus gov dredges up cuter panic-button for kids online

    Flipper fights predatory paedophiles

    Salvation for children who feel threatened, harassed or bullied on the internet may be close at hand, in the shape of a user-friendly dolphin-shaped "panic button". That appears to be the upshot of discussions now taking place in the Australian Federal Government’s consultative working group on cyber safety. While their …

    The Register 26 Nov 15:29

    IT buyers will keep purses shut till New Year

    January sales may see growth return

    IT spending will likely return to growth next year, although it will be modest - about four per cent worldwide for the whole year. This will be partly driven by pent-up demand - purchases and upgrades which have been delayed by recession fears this year. The survey, from Goldman Sachs, found businesses expecting to increase …

    Channel Register 26 Nov 15:28

    How to network at a supercomputing show

    SC09 Switch hitters

    There was plenty of noise coming out of the networking vendors, who glue supercomputing nodes and their storage to each other at last week's SC09 supercomputing trade show in Portland, Oregon. El Reg has already told you about QLogic getting reseller deals for its quad data rate InfiniBand host channel adapter from Dell, …

    The Register 26 Nov 14:37

    Police smoke out 300-pound frozen turkey thief

    Homeless giant repaid hospitality with fridge invasion

    Police in Michigan are hunting an enormous homeless burglar who swiped a family's Thanksgiving turkey. The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports that the Sobiegray family were left facing a fowl-free Thanksgiving, after the man kicked down their front door and raided their freezer on Tuesday night. The suspect in the theft of the …

    The Register 26 Nov 14:36

    Replace Bulldog gridiron mascot with robot, PETA demands

    Symbol of sturdy Britishness mustn't be bred any more

    Animal-rights protesters in Georgia, America have asked a local football* team - the "Georgia Bulldogs" - to replace their recently-deceased bulldog mascot with a robot. The protesters say that far from being tough, bulldogs are actually weakly genetic freaks and shouldn't be allowed to breed. WGAU Local News reports on the …

    The Register 26 Nov 14:35

    SpinVox puts spin on layoff rumours

    Exclusive It's just a slice here and there...

    SpinVox insiders say the controversial voice-to-text company has made layoffs at its Marlow office today. Brunswick, SpinVox's PR company, told us that SpinVox had an ongoing program of cost-reduction but declined to characterise it as a round of redundancies. SpinVox's debt problems were widely discussed in press reports …

    The Register 26 Nov 14:15

    Mobile industry excludes self from filesharing regulation

    We'd love to help, but just can't

    Mobile operators have kicked off the PR war against identifying those sharing files by revealing themselves as the ideal conduit for any kind of online crime. The details come from the Mobile Broadband Group, which counts all the UK's operators as members and told ZD Net that mobile operators don't allocate IP addresses to …

    The Register 26 Nov 13:32

    Facebook swipes user's vanity URL

    Analysis I am not a number, I am a squaresheep! Or not

    Facebook's recently introduced vanity URLs may be a handy function for many, but the offer to distinguish users' profiles with names rather than numbers is not unconditional. Defence systems engineer David Lloyd was pleased to be able to adopt the nickname 'squaresheep' to distinguish his Facebook profile from those of the …

    The Register 26 Nov 13:23

    Nokia limits N900 shipments to pre-order customers

    Everyone else will have to wait a little longer for the smartphone

    Nokia fans hoping to pick up one of its N900 Linux-based smartphone-cum-tablets on the high street may finally be able to do so on 4 December. An unnamed Nokia spokesperson yesterday told website NokNok that the sheer volume of advance orders the Finnish phone giant has taken for the N900 means even though the first of these …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 13:23

    Kent Police exceeded powers in too-tall photographer case

    'Because we can' is not proper grounds for an arrest

    Police in Kent have at last acknowledged that arresting people for being too tall might not be a very good idea. Or rather, arresting someone for no better reason than "because they could" was unlawful and not altogether sensible. The story begins this July when photographer Alex Turner was stopped whilst taking snaps in …

    The Register 26 Nov 13:07

    Geeks Guide2 Christmas 2009 - Part I

    Christmas Savings at Reg Books

    Welcome to the first part of our trilogy of Christmas 2009 goodies! If he hasn't made too many elves redundant, St Nick should be with us in four weeks' time, and for those of you who have yet to begin shopping we'll have 40 per cent savings each week on a range of books from dSLR cameras to iPhones, dragons to zombies, and …

    The Register 26 Nov 13:02

    TomTom iPhone Car Kit

    Review Worth its Jobsian price tag?

    Yes, the iPhone incarnation of TomTom's GPS navigation system is a bit on the pricey side. But if you're a fan, you're used to paying a pretty penny for flashy tech. And this TomTom actually gets the job done. The TomTom car kit for iPhone mounts firmly and easily to your car's windshield - or windscreen TomTom released a …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 13:02

    Italian prosecutors seek jail time for Google execs

    Mountain View in hot water over 'defamation' video

    Italian prosecutors are pushing for Google execs to be jailed in a case over an internet video that showed the bullying of a teenager with Down's Syndrome. In September 2006, someone posted a three-minute mobile phone video to Google's Italian website in which four Turin teenagers make fun of a classmate with Down's Syndrome …

    The Register 26 Nov 12:54

    'Alien spies live among us' says Bulgarian gov space boffin

    Say we must stop global warming, unnatural insemination

    A boffin at the Bulgarian national Space Research Institute has stated that not only are aliens living among us, but that they object strongly to "immoral behaviour" by humanity - such as causing global warming. "Unnatural" acts such as use of cosmetics and "artificial insemination" are also frowned upon by the extraterrestrial …

    The Register 26 Nov 12:32

    London's stock exchange crashes again

    Updated Who's to blame this time?

    The London Stock Exchange has suffered yet another systems crash, leaving brokers high and dry since 9.30 this morning. The Exchange last went down in September 2008 and took almost the entire day to get back online. That outage, on one of the Exchange's busiest days, was the day after the $200bn bailout of US housing giants …

    The Register 26 Nov 12:23

    Asus unboxes latest Eee Box

    Dual-core Atom plus Ion

    Asus has broadened its Eee Box range with the addition of a dual-core Atom-based mini-desktop. Asus's Eee Box 1501: Nvidia Ion plus dual-core Atom The new Eee Box 1501 incorporates Intel’s dual-core 1.6GHz Atom 330 CPU and Nvidia's Ion integrated chipset. Windows 7 Premium comes pre-installed on the machine, which can take …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 12:12

    Crowdsourced maps take inspiration from Pac-Man

    Don't eat that Power Pellet or we'll end up lost

    Free mapping service Waze is hoping to fill gaps by providing users with virtual rewards for real work. "Cherries", "hammers" and "small gifts" will be awarded to users driving down a specific street or across a junction where Waze finds a disconnect in its crowd-sourced maps, the idea being to speed up completion of some …

    The Register 26 Nov 12:00

    Computacenter beefs up in Germany

    Finds becom becoming

    British PC mega reseller Computacenter has hoovered up German outfit becom Informationssysteme GmbH. London-based Computacenter will pay UCSG Holding Gmbh €2m for the operation, with a further €1.2m in the pot depending on the final shape of the balance sheet. Computacentre says the deal "will strengthen Computacenter's …

    Channel Register 26 Nov 11:51

    iPhone developer hires worm author

    Strewth!

    An Australian mobile application developer has hired the creator of the first iPhone worm, Ashley Towns, as a software developer. Towns, 21, from Wollongong, New South Wales, landed a job with mogeneration, publisher of a children's game called Moo Shake! The creator of the infamous ikee (Rickrolling) worm broke news of his …

    The Register 26 Nov 11:35

    US Military cyber forces on the defensive in network battle

    Operation Screaming Whimpering Fist

    The US 24th Air Force - the first dedicated American military cyber force to go operational - is "not yet a warfighting organisation" and needs to "create an awareness of the battlespace", according to its commander. Major-General Richard Webber, a former nuclear-missile and satellite-jamming officer, took over the 24th in …

    The Register 26 Nov 11:31

    Modern Warfare 2 update confirmed

    Download content dated to 'Spring' 2010

    Don’t fret if you are growing tired of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or have already completed all the levels - it has emerged that more content is on the way. Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2’s developer, has confirmed that a downloadable content (DLC) update is currently being created …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 11:30

    Sennheiser parades "world's best Bluetooth headset"

    Fold-flat wireless travel cans

    Claiming your Bluetooth headset as the “world’s best” is a dangerous statement to make, but one that manufacturer Sennheiser believes its latest cans are worthy of. Sennheiser’s MM 450 Travel headset Sennheiser’s MM 450 Travel headset does away with a pesky cable by opting to communicate with your media player or mobile …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 11:27

    Sun doubles Open Storage high-end performance

    Comes out with CPU, cache and capacity upgrades

    Sun has pimped up its high-end Storage 7000 product with processor, cache and hard drive upgrades. At Supercomputer 09, Sun announced that it was supporting 2TB drives in its Storage 7000 products, doubling capacity from 288TB to 576TB. It also added InfiniBand and Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) as well as boosting …

    The Register 26 Nov 11:06

    Afghanistan disappears from Planet Apple

    Prepare for war with Eurasia!

    iPhone owners with mates in Afghanistan will have a hard time keeping track of them, as the handset doesn't admit the existence of the country in its contacts application. A contact's country of residence is selected from a drop-down list on the iPhone and iPod Touch - unless that contact lives in Afghanistan, in which case …

    The Register 26 Nov 10:59

    Virgin Media to trial filesharing monitoring system

    CView not for you to see

    Virgin Media will trial deep packet inspection technology to measure the level of illegal filesharing on its network, but plans not to tell the customers whose traffic will be examined. The system, CView, will be provided by Detica, a BAE subsidiary that specialises in large volume data collection and processing, and whose …

    The Register 26 Nov 10:36

    Microsoft enlists faceless girl band as face of Windows 7

    Leather-clad Sugababes shove OS through revolving door

    The Sugababes may be clumsily plodding along without any original members left in their line-up, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from enlisting Heidi, Amelle and Jade (who they?) to big up Windows 7. As usual Microsoft has completely misjudged its audience with the company's latest marketing campaign. It's already been …

    The Register 26 Nov 10:13

    NASA to develop haptic air-typing spacesuit gloves

    Touch screens over before they began?

    NASA is considering plans to integrate haptic vibro feedback and Halting State style air-writing accelerometer capability into spacesuit gloves. The news came this week as the space agency announced candidates selected for its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) pork handouts. Among the successful applicants was Virginia …

    The Register 26 Nov 10:02

    Windows 7 saves Dixons

    I'm a PC, and saving your ass was my idea

    Dixons Store Group International credited the launch of Windows 7 with reducing its losses for the first half of the year - ahead of the all-important Christmas sales beano. DSGi said sales in the six months ended 17 October 2009 were down one per cent to £3.3bn and like-for-like sales were down four per cent overall, but up …

    Channel Register 26 Nov 09:51

    Google flirts with new-look home page

    It's bolder. It's, um, bluer

    Google is testing out a new look for its iconic search page, featuring cleaner, bolder graphics and a default side bar. A small number of Google users have already been seeing the changes over the past week or so, although it's not clear when, if ever, the new search interface will be widely deployed. As you can see from …

    The Register 26 Nov 08:02

    EU gifts Ireland €14.8m after Dell Limerick shutdown

    Funds for (most) redundants

    The European Parliament has sent €14.8 million to the Mid-West of Ireland following the shutdown of Dell's factory in Limerick. Dell Computer shuttered its Limerick factory in January, cutting loose 2,840 workers. 2,000 of those were Dell employees and the rest worked for suppliers and downstream partners. Ireland applied for …

    Channel Register 26 Nov 08:02

    RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700

    Review Slimmer, sharper, swifter

    The original BlackBerry Bold 9000 cut quite a dash when it debuted last year, signalling clearly to any doubters that Research in Motion was moving the BlackBerry out of the boardroom and into the pockets and handbags of consumers who had need for its exemplary e-mail service in their day-to-day lives. Leaner and fitter: RIM' …

    Reg Hardware 26 Nov 08:02

    iFarter begs Apple for rational App Store

    Holding your breath? There's no app for that

    First Apple came for the fart apps, and I did not speak out because I was not an insufferable twat. Then Apple came for the Nancy Pelosi Bobblehead app, and I did not speak out — because seriously, a bobblehead app? Are you kidding me? Then Apple came for the "ka-ching" button app — and, hmmm...there probably is in fact …

    The Register 26 Nov 07:02

    UK equality laws 'fall short of EU requirements', says Commission

    Less equal than others

    The UK's equality laws are inadequate, according to the European Commission which has announced that it has begun legal action against the UK. The Government claims that new equality legislation will settle the dispute. The Commission has said that the UK's laws are not compliant with the Equal Treatment Directive. It has …

    The Register 26 Nov 07:02

    Locust Storage unveils Ethernet-powered disk array

    Eco-friendly tech aims for global swarming

    Start-up Locust Storage is combining drive spin-down with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) to provide what it reckons is the greenest storage array yet designed. The technology combines standard hard disk drives, a solid state drive (SSD) front end, and a Lithium Ion battery reservoir, fed by PoE over a 10GigE wire, to provide …

    The Register 26 Nov 07:02

  3. Wednesday, 25 November 2009

    Atlantis glides home with choked pee nozzle

    No more dumps before terra firma?

    Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station today for its three-day return voyage to terra firma. All systems are clear for the STS-129 mission's planned landing at Kennedy Space Center on Friday morning — with the small exception of a blockage in the craft's waste water dump line. During a purge of …

    The Register 25 Nov 21:43

    ICANN condemns registry DNS redirection

    No typo-squatting for SiteFinder set

    The group that oversees the internet's address system is taking a hard stance against domain name registries that redirect internet users to third-party sites when a non-existent URL is typed. Earlier this week, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said the practice - known as NXDOMAIN substitution …

    The Register 25 Nov 21:28

    Why can't Google be more like Microsoft?

    Chrome OS and the wonders of closed open source

    Jeff Haynie has a wish. He wishes that when building an operating system, Google was as open as Microsoft. Or at least as open as Apple. He's well aware that Google likes to open source Android code. He realizes the company just freed code for an early version of its netbook-happy Chrome OS. And, yes, he heard über-Googler …

    The Register 25 Nov 20:53

    Apple sues over knock-off power bricks

    Imitation not flattery

    Apple has sued a California company for alleging infringing a laptop AC-adapter patent granted to Cupertino in 2003. And they may have already won. Filed in federal court on Monday, the suit alleges that the California company, Media Solutions Holdings, infringes on Apple design patent entitled simply "Power adapter" which …

    Channel Register 25 Nov 20:45

    Mozilla hatches Thunderbird 3 release candidate

    Almost out of the nest

    Thunderbird 3 is nearly ready to leave the nest. Mozilla Messaging on Wednesday conjured up the first release candidate for version 3.0 of their popular open source email and news client. What's that mean to you, the reader who doesn't like plunking fledgling code on their system? Only that portentous feeling that the final …

    The Register 25 Nov 19:29

    Reg readers reveal their holiday toilet texting plans

    Beats staring at the walls

    As our US readers get ready to head home for the holidays and our UK readers face up to the fact that Christmas/Yule/2010 is just around the corner, it's time to deliver the final word on the issue of toilet texting. Last month, Intel claimed that research showed that three quarters of Americans feel it is "perfectly …

    The Register 25 Nov 18:00

    Wikipedia bans Volvo's IT over racist rants

    Swedish vandalism

    Wikipedia has banned editing from machines inside Volvo Information Technology - the outfit that operates the Swedish auto maker's IT infrastructure - after someone in the organization vandalized the free encyclopedia with a pair of profanity-laden racist rants. Yesterday, an anonymous Wikifiddler sitting behind the IP address …

    Channel Register 25 Nov 17:46

    Evaluating enterprise application software

    Is IT's input really necessary nowadays?

    A seasoned ERP salesman coaching a junior colleague once said: “The trick, my boy, is to avoid the IT department like the plague for as long as possible, as they’ll just make your life complicated by asking lots of irrelevant geeky questions. Win the hearts and minds of the business people first by convincing them the software …

    The Register 25 Nov 17:09

    New York to beam disaster alerts to Xbox gamers

    'Liberty City' to test emergency broadcasts via consoles

    Evading terrorists and nuclear attacks on your Xbox 360 looks set to become a real-world challenge as well as a virtual one. New York State (NYS) has begun trialling use of the console as an emergency broadcast system for disasters. NYS’ Emergency Management Office (EMO) has opted to use the Xbox 360 as a test bed for console- …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 16:55

    Strap-on jetwing birdman does an Icarus into Straits of Gibraltar

    Yves Rossy flies, undone

    Renowned backpack birdman Yves Rossy has suffered yet another mishap during an attempt to fly across the Straits of Gibraltar. Windy conditions were blamed by organisers after the Swiss daredevil plunged into the sea minutes after leaping from a small aircraft above Morocco, having intended to land in Spain. Jetboy Rossy in …

    The Register 25 Nov 16:27

    9/11 pager messages released on Wikileaks

    Of course the government sent most of them

    Over half a million intercepted pager messages sent on 11 September 2001 are being released by Wikileaks. The messages began appearing at 3am and will continue being released in order until 3am tomorrow. Early messages were mostly server status updates and the likes of "NATALIE NEEDS SOME HELP ON HER SLIDE...THANKS IN ADVANCE …

    The Register 25 Nov 16:24

    'Black box for buses' datachip survives 900° conflag

    Tech so secret, even DHS project chief knows naught

    Dastardly terrorists and/or incompetent drivers can no longer hope that the evidence of their catastrophic misdeeds, recorded by security cameras aboard public transport, will be erased in the hellish conflagrations following train wrecks and bus crashes. That's because the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has …

    The Register 25 Nov 15:52

    Satyam investigation jacks up fraud bill by 40 per cent

    Money was funnelled into land, houses

    The Satyam Computer Services scandal has flared back into life with allegations that the fraud perpetuated at the firm was 40 per cent bigger than previously thought. India's Central Bureau of Investigation released a supplementary charge sheet today which claims that the ten people it says were behind the scam inflated …

    Channel Register 25 Nov 15:37

    Man guilty of selling fake chips to US Navy

    Go tell it to the Marines fella

    A 32-year-old California man has pleaded guilty to selling thousands of counterfeit computer processors to the US Navy. Neil Felahy of Newport Coast, California pleaded guilty to conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods charges. As part of a plea bargain Felahy has agreed to co-operate with the US authorities. He faces …

    Channel Register 25 Nov 15:34

    iPhone anti-malware stuck in state of denial

    Not needed, says Apple. Won't run, say developers

    The blaze of publicity that accompanied the release of the first iPhone worms this month has sparked interest in selling anti-malware products for the device. However no such security products currently exist and Apple shows little inclination in licensing any that do get developed. Antivirus products for Symbian smartphones …

    The Register 25 Nov 14:53

    Nigel Lawson: Climate science has turned into religion

    Interview Why a think tank? Why now?

    One thing is missing from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, launched at Westminster on Monday, chairman Lord Lawson admitted. Mrs Thatcher's Chancellor for six years acknowledged that there aren't many young people on board. The average age of the Trustees is 74. You could almost say it pits the Old Aged vs the New Agers. …

    The Register 25 Nov 14:25

    'Whales can't even hear naval sonar' says Navy boffin

    Enormous CT scanner used to probe spermwhale's noggin

    A boffin funded by the US Navy has used a gigantic CT scanner, normally employed for inspecting space rockets, to X-ray the head of a whale. The results apparently indicate that naval sonars can't be the cause of whale beachings, as the mighty cetaceans are unable to hear the relevant frequencies. The boffin in question is Dr …

    The Register 25 Nov 13:54

    Freesat to get BBC iPlayer on 7 December

    Freeview HD spoiler?

    Freesat, the free-to-air satellite TV service, has said BBC iPlayer support will be introduced on 7 December. That's just five days after the Freeview HD begins transmitting, and the Freesat iPlayer is arguably no more of a full launch that the terrestrial hi-def service is. What's coming on 7 December is the beta release, …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 13:45

    Police Intelligence may be a thing of the past

    *Insert your own joke here.*

    The days of police unlawfully collecting and holding personal information on individuals exercising their legal right to protest may be drawing to a close. That, at least, is the conclusion of protest groups who have themselves been the object of police surveillance in the past – and judging by the response from the …

    The Register 25 Nov 13:41

    Cathay Pacific clobbered by kaput khazis

    Engineers 'looking into' clogged Airbus crappers

    Airbus and Cathay Pacific engineers are "looking into" a series of blocked lav incidents on the airline's A330 and A340 aircraft - the worst of which saw one flight diverted with all its toilets out of commission. Cathay Pacific has been hit three times in 11 days by choked crappers. Two flights - one from Rome on 9 November …

    The Register 25 Nov 13:32

    US Air Force orders 2200 Sony PS3s

    Extending supercomputing Linux cluster

    The US Air Force plans to buy a whopping 2200 PlayStation 3 games consoles which it will use to expand an existing PS3-based supercomputer. The current cluster of consoles contains 336 PS3s, each connected by their RJ45 ports to a common 24-port Gigabit Ethernet hub, Air Force online documentation states. The entire set-up …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 13:19

    Nokia E72 smartphone

    Review BlackBerry liquidiser?

    The E72 is the latest in Nokia’s line of Qwerty handsets, beefing up the popular E71 with a slightly sleeker look, improved software and some interface tweaks. It’s very slim – only just over 1cm thick, 58.3mm wide, and 114 tall, weighing 128g. The 2.36in screen is only QVGA, though arguably on a unit this size, a higher …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 13:02

    Responding to change in the server room

    Mini Poll How 'dynamic' is your server environment?

    When talking about managing the server environment, we hear all kinds of words bandied around to suggest how organisations might benefit from enhanced levels of flexibility, adaptability, agility, you name it. But resource allocation, that is, how well existing or new server capacity meets new or changing requirements, is where …

    The Register 25 Nov 13:02

    US senators tell EC: Butt out of Oracle-Sun

    Damn foreigners unfairly impeding US business

    John Kerry, Orrin Hatch and 57 other senators have written to the European Commission accusing it of taking too long to approve Oracle's takeover of Sun in order to deliberately damage US business. In an open letter Senator John Kerry (Mass) said: "The EC is within its sovereign rights to set the rules for operation in its …

    Channel Register 25 Nov 12:50

    OCZ promising USB 3 desktop SSD

    Partnering with Symwave

    The dreary wait for slow desktop and notebook booting could be halted in its tracks for those with USB 3 interfaces and and cash, as OCZ is developing a fast and large capacity USB 3 SSD. What's happening is that OCZ is getting together with Symwave, a supplier of USB 3.0 silicon, to add a USB 3 interface to a desktop solid …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:46

    Offline Gmail kisses up to attachments - at last

    I'm in an igloo, look at my ice cold face

    Google has sat up and listened to users griping about the lack of an attachments feature in its offline version of Gmail by finally adding the option. Users who have Offline Gmail enabled (it’s not a default feature) will now see all their mail flowing through the outbox whether on or offline, said Google. The only thing …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:45

    UK.gov rejects calls to open up on ContactPoint security

    Report on child database kept under wraps

    The UK government has turned down an opposition request to explain why it has refused to publish a full security report into ContactPoint, the controversial child protection database. Deloitte carried out of a security audit of the scheme but the government only published an executive summary, rather than the whole report, …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:41

    Superconductor forcefield to shield re-entering spacecraft?

    Euro/Russian plan for submarine missile test mulled

    Space boffins have hatched a plan to test their radical new superconductor magnet forcefield re-entry heatshield technology by firing it into space from a Russian submarine. Flight International reported on the scheme yesterday, describing cooperative efforts by German space agency DLR (Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:34

    Apple wants life ban for clone maker

    No sequel for Psystar

    Apple is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Psystar ever again selling cloned Mac software or hardware. Apple won a recent injunction but wants this to be extended to cover Snow Leopard, because otherwise Psystar will not stop copying its intellectual property. The company is also seeking damages and attorney fees. It is …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:18

    Fring brings Skype video calls to mobile

    Will you use video if it's free? Ah g'wan

    Skype-gateway-to-mobile providers Fring have added support for a selection of S60 devices, bringing free video calling to Symbian handsets. Fring is an identity-aggregating app that also gateways into Skype's voice network, providing Skype connectivity on the move. That's been voice-only until now, but the latest release …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:16

    Mozilla glares at Microsoft, chews on Direct2D graphics cud

    Harden up, people

    Mozilla has proclaimed that the race is on to beat Microsoft to the post in its efforts to insert Direct2D support into the next version of its Internet Explorer browser. Over the weekend, Mozilla programmer Bas Schouten wrote a lengthy blog post about how he had successfully loaded Direct2D support into an alpha build of …

    The Register 25 Nov 12:00

    Beeb storm cockup: Wrong day's shipping forecast read

    But sailors shouldn't really be using Radio 4 anymore

    Proof, if it were needed, that voice in general and the BBC in particular are foolish ways to transmit important information was provided by Radio 4 earlier this month when an announcer read out the shipping forecast for the wrong day - during one of the stormiest weekends of the year. Parts of the first shipping forecast …

    The Register 25 Nov 11:49

    HP rolls out business-friendly smartphone

    The iPaq is baq

    We haven’t heard much about HP’s iPaq 'once PDA, now smartphone' range for a while, but now it’s back – as a “feature-rich...world phone”, whatever that means. HP's iPaq Glisten: for business types, mostly According to its technical specifications, the iPaq Glisten shimmers with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity – that latter can …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 11:42

    The rise of targeted attacks

    Webcast Expert musings that hit the spot

    Earlier this month Paul Wood of MessageLabs joined Freeform Dynamics’ Jon Collins in the Reg studio to discuss targeted attacks and their affect on the modern business. This thirty minute audio webcast with accompanying slides is now available to watch free of charge from the Reg Archives. Volumes of targeted attacks are on …

    The Register 25 Nov 11:31

    RIPA III: A legislative turkey comes home to roost

    Comment The tragic consequences of anti-crypto law

    The first conviction of a man under the draconian powers of RIPA Part III tragically bears out a prediction I made at the time: that these powers would do little or nothing to tackle serious crime or terror, but would create a power the police could use to harass people and undermine their right to remain silent. After all, a …

    The Register 25 Nov 11:19

    Apple adds Tesco as iPhone partner

    Every retailer helps

    It already sells milk, bread, booze, car insurance and furniture. Now supermarket behemoth Tesco is to add the Apple iPhone to its growing inventory. Tesco today confirmed a joint venture with O2, enabling the supermarket to introduce the iPhone 3G and 3GS into its retail operation "shortly". The handset will be sold through …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 11:10

    MSI preps slim laptop with AMD Neo X2 chippery

    Thin'n'light not an Intel-only game

    MSI has rolled out a new member of its X family of skinny notebooks. This one has a AMD Neo X2 dual-core processor, proving that Intel won't have the thin'n'light laptop market all to itself. The X430 is based around a 13in, 1366 x 768 display - that's a 16:9 widescreen TV aspect ratio, hence the shorter-than-you-might-expect …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 11:05

    Fault tolerance in virtualised environments

    You the Expert Doesn’t get much more exciting than this

    In this, our final Experts column in the current server series, our reader experts look at fault tolerance in Virtualised environments. As ever, we’re grateful to Reg reader experts Adam and Trevor for sharing their experience. They are joined by Intel’s Iain Beckingham and Freeform Dynamics’ Martin Atherton. Server …

    The Register 25 Nov 11:02

    iPhone comes to Tesco

    Do Tesco do Finest mobiles?

    Tesco is planning to offer the iPhone 3G and 3GS, hopefully before Christmas, proving that Apple's status symbol is now the phone of the people. Tesco will be selling both models of iPhone, on-line and in stores, but they're not promising to have them available before Christmas as there are logistical issues to sort out, …

    The Register 25 Nov 10:51

    Advertisers say new cookie law met by browser settings

    Implied consent innit

    Advertising trade bodies have claimed that a new law passed this week by the European Parliament will not require website publishers to ask permission to put cookies on a user's computer. They argue that browser settings will imply consent. The European Parliament today voted to approve the European Commission's Telecoms …

    The Register 25 Nov 10:49

    EMC stages $100m international reorganisation

    One holding company to bind them all

    EMC is reorganising its various international operations into a single holding company and repatriating $4bn to EMC USA at a cost of $100m in taxes. The bare details are laid out in a November 18 SEC filing. This says EMC will transfer: Certain assets of its RSA and Data Domain entities and legacy foreign corporations owned …

    The Register 25 Nov 10:41

    Xiotech definitely not using SSDs in near future

    Are we clear on that?

    A Xiotech blog post says unequivocally that Xiotech will not be using solid state drives (SSDs) in its Emprise arrays in the near future. The post, made to rebut a Techopsguys blog, is written as though it comes from someone like Jim MacDonald, Xiotech's new Chief Strategy Officer, although it is not attributed to any …

    The Register 25 Nov 10:37

    Tivo to return to UK in 2010

    Virgin Media tie-in

    Virgin Media has announced impending plans to deliver Tivo to UK homes. Tivo, the original PVR service, will provide “middleware and user interface software” for co-branded Virgin Media next-generation set-top boxes due to arrive in Blighty at some point next year. Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media, said: “Our fibre-optic …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 10:24

    Eat frozen food and avoid line-caught fish, says eco study

    Enviro-profs clash with Greenpeace advice

    Enviro-profs studying the ecological impact of food production have come out with some counter-intuitive results. According to a new study, it is greener to eat frozen salmon than fresh, and catching fish en masse in nets does less damage to the planet than taking just a few using hooks and lines. The new research was carried …

    The Register 25 Nov 09:53

    Microsoft loses top beancounter

    CFO looks for pastures beyond Redmond and beans

    Microsoft is saying goodbye to its chief beancounter, Chris Liddell, after four and a half years in the post. CFO Liddell leaves at the end of the year and will be replaced by Peter Klein - currently CFO of Microsoft's business division. Klein worked in corporate finance before joining Microsoft. Steve Ballmer said Liddell …

    The Register 25 Nov 09:53

    Feral dromedaries besiege Oz Outback town

    'Some people open their windows and all they see is camels'

    An Oz Outback community is battling to regain control of its town from a 6,000-strong feral camel invasion, which has seen the thirsty dromedaries cause "chaos" in their search for water. According to the Times, the drought-hit beasts have descended on the Northern Territory's Docker River en masse, "trampling through homes, …

    The Register 25 Nov 09:50

    1,024 TV Re-Runs at 1.5GB/sec

    Now that's what I call streaming!

    As we’re slowly gathering our wits again after a week of supercomputing fun at SC09, a story from Chris Mellor caught our eye this morning. Chris was writing about Fusion I/O and its newest SSD (Solid State Drive) product, the Fusion ioDrive Octal. These units provide up to 5TB raw storage and can push up to 800,000 IOPS. We …

    The Register 25 Nov 09:39

    Unified networking: Reality or a marketing myth?

    We all know that the IT Infrastructure has a life of its own. In the vast majority of organisations the infrastructure evolves over time rather than being designed as a whole. This applie s to all of the underlying components: the servers, the storage and -an area very easy to overlook - the network or networks that tie …

    The Register 25 Nov 08:58

    iRiver Story e-book reader

    Review Best in class?

    While the price and diversity of e-book readers is still some way off achieving the sort of critical mass that put an MP3 player in nearly pocket, the number of devices appearing on the market is increasing at a healthy rate. A good read? iRiver’s Story While not exactly a household name here in the UK, iRiver can usually …

    Reg Hardware 25 Nov 08:02

    Data Direct offers native file system

    Nehalem replaces FPGA hardware

    DataDirect, a shipper of very high-speed block-access storage to the high performance computing (HPC) and media worlds, is now offering native file access. The company has seen the way two winds are blowing. The first is that multi-core commodity CPUs are outpacing what it can do with its in-house FPGA hardware. The second …

    The Register 25 Nov 08:02

    Apple tops Google as UK 'Thought Leader'

    Tories top thinkers too

    Apple has replaced Google as the top "Business Thought Leader" in the UK, according to a survey of 1,000 Blighty-based "Key Opinion Leaders." The survey - known as the Thought Leadership Index 2009 (PDF) - was conducted by the brand-floggers TLG Communications and the research firm Populus. Those opinion-offering KOLs (yes, …

    The Register 25 Nov 07:02

    Billionaire floats eco dream on sailing soda bottles

    Plastiki and the 100% recyclable yacht

    By now, David de Rothschild is used to being cast as the eccentric visionary whose well-meaning crusade to save the world's oceans is overshadowed by a lack of execution - or at least naiveté. After all, the billionaire eco-adventurer's three-year quest to sail across the Pacific in a boat made completely of recycled materials …

    The Register 25 Nov 07:02

    Climate change hackers leave breadcrumb trail

    Is anyone looking?

    The hackers who leaked more than 1,000 emails from one of the top climate research centers may have used an open proxy to cover their tracks, but that doesn't mean authorities can't figure out who they are. Rob Graham, CEO of penetration testing firm Errata Security, said his analysis suggests that the hackers used three open …

    The Register 25 Nov 06:02

    Google eyeballs to track Tivo watchers

    Pact gives ad giant 'second-by-second' data

    Google has inked a deal with digital video recorder (DVR) outfit Tivo that lets the search firm snoop on audience numbers as a way of fueling its TV advertising business. Tivo said the agreement allows the Google TV Ads platform to draw anonymous "second-by-second" DVR viewing data from all Tivo subscribers using standalone …

    The Register 25 Nov 06:02

  4. Tuesday, 24 November 2009

    HP takes one in the servers

    Comment Hurd hails 3Com 'convergence'

    Well, it looks the enterprise slammed on the server spending brakes a lot quicker and a lot harder than smaller outfits this fall. HP released its fourth quarter earnings yesterday, and its Enterprise Storage and Servers group took a serious hit, with sales down 16.6 per cent to $4.22bn in the quarter ended October 31. The …

    The Register 24 Nov 23:31

    Amazon instaboosts Kindle battery life

    Flying firmware

    Amazon is boosting the Kindle's battery life and adding native support for PDF documents with a free firmware upgrade for the e-reader. The online retailer said the Kindle 2 will get an 85 per cent boost in battery life — lasting seven days on a charge versus the previous limit of four days. With wireless turned off, battery …

    The Register 24 Nov 22:23

    Fanbois Apple buyers howl over crocked iMacs

    A crack in the cult

    Apple customers are howling over a pair of recurring flaws in the company's new iMac desktops. Some buyers say machines are arriving on doorsteps with a conspicuous crack in the lower left-hand corner of Apple's built-in display, while others howl that their freshly-shipped systems won't even turn on. Each flaw has spawned …

    The Register 24 Nov 21:37

    Opera plugs hole in Great Firewall of China

    Facebook withdrawal 'upgrade'

    Opera has sealed the hole its Mini browser tunneled through the Great Firewall of China. With the international version of Opera Mini - the company's Java-based mobile browser - Chinese users had found a way of freeing themselves from local net filters, accessing sites otherwise banned by the government. The browser shuttles …

    The Register 24 Nov 19:44

    Bug puts net's most popular DNS app in Bind

    Rare but remote

    Makers of Bind have warned of a security vulnerability in versions of the domain name resolution application that could allow attackers to trick servers into returning unauthorized results. The bug in the Berkeley Internet Name Domain program surfaces only when the DNSSEC security implementation is enabled and the name server …

    The Register 24 Nov 18:55

    Fasthosts in day-long email FAIL

    You say 'intermittent.' I say 'You're rubbish!'

    Customers of Fasthosts - the UK-based webhost - have been without both POP and web-based email for much of the day, complaining that such outages have become, shall we say, far too prevalent in recent months. A half-dozen users have contacted The Reg about the outage, and countless others have complained via posts to the web. …

    The Register 24 Nov 18:37

    Dodgy wheel thwarts Mars rover rescue

    Sand trap 3: NASA 0

    NASA's attempts to rescue its stuck rover Spirit from a Martian sand trap has hit another snag in the form of a dawdling wheel. Spirit's right-rear wheel stalled during the agency's third attempt to extract the aging rover from a sandy feature called "Troy" where it has been caught since April. The space agency was also …

    The Register 24 Nov 18:34

    MS unleashes legal attack dogs to lick up COFEE spill

    Cryptonomicon

    Microsoft unleashed its legal attack dogs to remove its leaked forensics tool from a respected security site, it has emerged. Cryptome.org was issued with a take-down notice shortly after Microsoft's point-and-click "computer forensics for cops" tool leaked onto the web earlier this month. Redmond's lawyers acted over …

    The Register 24 Nov 17:08

    Sony to publish James Patterson e-book reader

    Digital thrills?

    Are thrillers more up your alley than slushy Mills & Boon romances? If so, take a gander at the latest version of Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition: a tribute to author James Patterson. Sony's James Patterson Reader Pocket Edition Called, unsurprisingly, the James Patterson Reader Pocket Edition, the e-book viewer will come with …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 16:48

    Sony Ericsson suspends Satio sales

    Pulls phone over software glitches

    Sony Ericsson has withdrawn its new 12Mp cameraphone, Satio, from sale after only a few weeks of UK availability. The company told Register Hardware today that “a small number of consumers have experienced software issues” with the phone over here. It isn't known if overseas buyers are experiencing the same problems. Sony …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 16:43

    Google herds coders into Chrome extensions gallery

    Hang 'em high

    Google is corralling developers into uploading their Chrome browser extensions to a new gallery that hasn’t been opened up to testers yet. That will change for a select bunch of coding guinea pigs in the next few days, said Mountain View. In the meantime, those developers who want to slot their add-ons into Chrome will be …

    The Register 24 Nov 16:35

    Dragon Age: Origins game in gay sex scene shock

    Help me become somebody's elf*

    A secret scene in the fantasy game Dragon Age: Origins shows a male character getting down to some hot same-sex action with an elf, The Telegraph titters today. The scene, hailed by some as progressive and derided by others as "ewww icky", is accessed when a player seduces the warrior Zevran with the right combination of …

    The Register 24 Nov 16:31

    Emblaze demos Else handset

    Not a smartphone, a 'mobile apps device', apparently

    If you are bored of the same old smartphones, then an Israeli design firm claims to have designed a handset that offers something Else. Emblaze's Else runs on Linux The Else “mobile device” runs on Linux and has been hailed by Emblaze as a step away from “phone-centric” devices and a step towards “application-centric” multi …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 16:28

    Orchestration and the server environment

    Workshop Just pie in the sky?

    Few words in the IT industry’s vocabulary are more grandiose than ‘orchestration’, evoking images of symphonic movements, rows of groomed musicians and wild-haired, baton-pointing conductors. Just how the term came to be used for the allocation of server resources must leave IT managers more than a little flummoxed, however. …

    The Register 24 Nov 16:22

    Twitter finds its voice

    For the really, really, lazy blogger

    A new service offers to post voice files to Twitter, enabling those who can't even type 140 characters to contribute to their valuable insight to the blogosphere. The service comes from Kirusa and, unlike competing services, doesn’t bother trying to transcribe the recorded voice but simply posts a recording of the message onto …

    The Register 24 Nov 16:20

    eBay offers compo for search failure

    Tech firm behaves like a proper company

    eBay is offering customers hit by the failure of its search engine last weekend the chance to relist items, rather than sell them at lower prices. They are also offering discount vouchers to buyers who are disappointed to have lost out. In an email sent to sellers last night, the online tat bazaar said search was unavailable …

    The Register 24 Nov 16:18

    Manchester united against ID cards, ID minister finds

    All the supporters live somewhere else apparently

    The put-upon people of Manchester got the chance to quiz Home Office minister Meg Hillier on ID cards yesterday, while Parliament got an update on the national identity register - the database at the heart of the project. Sir Joseph Pilling told the Home Affairs committee that 538 people were now on the database - one of them …

    The Register 24 Nov 15:54

    Spectrum goes liberal at EU level

    Following Ofcom's lead

    While anti-piracy measures may have grabbed the headlines, the EU's Telecoms Package also endorses Ofcom-style spectrum liberalisation across Europe - to a point. The package, which was voted in today, states that radio spectrum should not be allocated by application; licensees should be free to do with it as they will. But it …

    The Register 24 Nov 14:30

    SuperSpeed adaptor goes on sale

    USB 3.0 for your laptop. Now.

    Keen to leap into the SuperSpeed era? There may not be many USB 3.0 devices you can use, but at least you can now prep your notebook for the new bus standard. Accessory supplier Brando has begun selling an ExpressCard 34 add-in with a pair of SuperSpeed ports built in. Brando's ExpressCard USB 3.0 adaptor: get ready for …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 13:53

    NASA plans robot rocket aeroplane to fly above Mars

    To join nuclear laser tank. Mars defends, actually

    NASA intends to build a robot rocketplane the size of a light aircraft and send it across space to fly the skies of Mars: and the space agency wants help in building it. Not quite so impressed with our tripod walker machines now, are we? The droid aeroplane is known, slightly confusingly, as ARES (Aerial Regional-scale …

    The Register 24 Nov 13:36

    LinkedIn wedges open API door

    Developers need key first, mind

    LinkedIn has opened its platform to developers who are prepared to try and pass a rigorous application process. Previously the business-oriented social networking site only offered a select bunch of partners access to its Web 2.0 platform, which many use as a CV hub and biz man stalking tool. LinkedIn, which claims about 50m …

    The Register 24 Nov 13:22

    Phone cloners eye 3G upgrade

    It's a real Nokia, honest, and I paid nothing for it

    Nokia is a status symbol in Asia, but as Prada and Gucci have found out to their cost, even when it comes to status symbols, punters will make do with a knock-off. Now they can get a more authentic knock-off. Qualcomm has signed a chip agreement with a leading Taiwanese supplier whose chips often find their way into fake …

    The Register 24 Nov 13:12

    Hitachi Ultrastar A7K2000 2TB HDD

    Review The two-terabyte hard drive to have?

    Back in August 2009, Hitachi announced that it was “shipping the industry’s first 2TB 7200rpm desktop hard disk drive” in the shape of the Deskstar 7K2000. Hitachi's Ultrastar A7K2000: better duration specs than the Deskstar That statement may have been accurate, depending on your definition of ‘shipping’, but we received a …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 12:53

    Ralsky jailed for four years over stock fraud spam scam

    Godfather of spam sent down

    Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky has been jailed for more than four years over his role in a masterminding a stock fraud spam campaign that made him an estimated $2.7m. Ralsky, 64, from West Bloomfield, near Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced to 51 months while his son-in-law, Scott Bradley, 48, was imprisoned for 40 months over …

    The Register 24 Nov 12:26

    EU stops haranguing Qualcomm

    Four-year case shelved indefinitely

    The European Commission has shut down its investigation into Qualcomm's alleged abuse of monopoly, as the complainants got bored and wandered off. The investigation was triggered by a complaint from Ericsson back in 2005, and was formally launched in October 2007. During the intervening time various other regulatory …

    The Register 24 Nov 12:15

    Spain warned on filesharing cut-offs

    Slow down there José

    Communications Commissioner Viviane Reding has warned Spain to look carefully at proposals to cut off alleged illegal filesharers. She said such a policy ran counter to European values and laws and that a new approach to protecting intellectual property was required. Reding said: "If Spain cuts off internet access without a …

    The Register 24 Nov 12:12

    UK jails schizophrenic for refusal to decrypt files

    Exclusive Terror squad arrest over model rocket

    The first person jailed under draconian UK police powers that Ministers said were vital to battle terrorism and serious crime has been identified by The Register as a schizophrenic science hobbyist with no previous criminal record. His crime was a persistent refusal to give counter-terrorism police the keys to decrypt his …

    The Register 24 Nov 11:36

    Corel begs for survival by giving takeover thumbs up

    As long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive

    WordPerfect maker Corel Corp confirmed yesterday that its majority investor, Vector Capital, planned to take the software vendor private in an effort to prevent a default on loans. The firm filed an amendment with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. It said it had expanded, added and clarified “certain …

    Channel Register 24 Nov 11:28

    Is server virtualization ready for production?

    Lab Beyond the low hanging fruit

    The adoption of server virtualization technology follows several trajectories. We could consider the breadth of its penetration in terms of the number of organisations using it today, or we could consider the depth of its use in individual organisations, in terms of what they actually do with it. The latter is of more …

    The Register 24 Nov 11:21

    Hard drives cop flak from .50 cal incendiary round

    Shooting up a server? Pah, that's nothing...

    Our piece last week on keepgoing.biz, which deployed an arsenal of weaponry to shoot the shit out of an innocent server, prompted HardOCP.com's Kyle Bennett to drop us a line suggesting he was better endowed in the firepower department. Coincidentally, HardOCP uses the same range as keepgoing.biz to satisfy its appetite for …

    The Register 24 Nov 11:20

    HP storage looking limp

    Comment NetApp revenues could overtake it

    HP's fourth quarter storage results show that NetApp is catching it up on a revenue basis. HP made $918m from its storage business in its fourth fiscal 2009 quarter, while NetApp recorded $910m. A year ago HP earned $1.15bn though, whereas NetApp made $908.4m, with HP showing a 20 per cent year-on-year decline and NetApp …

    Channel Register 24 Nov 11:19

    Your wish list for packaged applications

    Mini Poll All I want for Christmas is....

    Following our discussions this week on the importance of evaluating application packages from a technology perspective, we're interested in gathering some more information from you on the things that really matter. So, if you have a couple of minutes, please give us your feedback in the short poll below: READER POLL: …

    The Register 24 Nov 11:19

    Microsoft hit with lawsuit over Xbox memory card ban

    'Unauthorised' accessory supplier gets legal

    A UK-based manufacturer of Xbox 360 memory cards has begun legal action against Microsoft over the software giant's efforts to prevent so-called “unauthorised” memory cards being used with the console. Datel Design & Development, the manufacturer of Max Memory cards for the Xbox 360, yesterday filed a complaint with the San …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 11:07

    Collisions at LHC! Tevatron record to be broken soon?

    Boffins tear up schedule in race for dimensional portal

    Forging ahead much faster than had been expected, particle-smashing boffins at the Large Hadron Collider have now carried out actual collisions - blasting beams of protons into one another at a healthy 450 giga-electron-volts each for total whack of 900 GeV. Since the mighty LHC was crippled last year in an unfortunate electro …

    The Register 24 Nov 11:04

    First Nokia X-series phone priced up, release scheduled

    Three days to go

    The launch of Nokia’s first X-series handset is just days away, the Finnish phone giant has confirmed. Nokia's X6: out this Friday Unwrapped back in September, the X6 is the new range’s flagship model and will be available on 27 November – that’s this Friday, folks. The handset will cost an eye-watering £449 ($761/€496) if …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 10:50

    Opera update plugs heap big buffer overflow bug

    Major upgrade features baked-in web server tech

    Opera has fixed three potentially nasty security vulnerabilities with the release of a major new version of its web browser software. A heap buffer overflow bug involving the string to number conversion technology in previous versions of Opera created a means to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems. Opera version 10.10 …

    The Register 24 Nov 10:44

    Gov advisers slate Home Office over innocents' DNA retention

    Arrests made just to collar DNA

    The Human Genetics Commission has slammed the government over the rampant expansion of the UK's DNA database. One retired police officer told the Commission that the databases existence had changed policing practices, with some officers making arrests purely to get samples on the system. The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) is …

    The Register 24 Nov 10:16

    Vodafone Spain puts intelligence into fair use

    While the rich can buy their way out of it

    Vodafone is trialling tiered data services to Spain, priority data for business customers and more intelligent application of fair use capping. The system has been deployed across Vodafone's Spanish network. It is designed to ensure that customers on the operator's business tariff, paying €49 a month, get connected regardless …

    The Register 24 Nov 10:15

    Data centres: what are the new skill sets?

    You the expert Commodity technology = commodity staff?

    The capabilities of modern servers offer in-principle benefits of more dynamic management, workload balancing and so on. How do these capabilities impact on the skillsets required of data centre operations staff today? Trevor Pott Infrastructure Support Engineer The commoditisation of certain technologies once found only in …

    The Register 24 Nov 10:03

    'Google Earth for the Iraq insurgency' gets $115m

    Could have bought ordinary Google Earth for that

    Pentagon boffinry chiefs have decided to spend more than a hundred million dollars on a new military database/map system which will let troops in the field collect, share and organise intelligence more effectively. The system in question is named TIGR, for Tactical Ground Reporting, and it has been described as "Google Maps …

    The Register 24 Nov 09:52

    Google grabs another ad company

    Second this month

    Google has bought another display ad company - the second this month. The search giant is paying an undisclosed amount for Teracent which offers personalised display ads. Earlier this month Google paid $750m for AdMob which delivers display ads to iPhones and other mobile gadgets. Teracent claims to be able to tweak adverts …

    The Register 24 Nov 09:45

    Record company exec cuffed for failure to twitter

    Refused to virtually disperse Justin Bieber mall mob

    Long Island police last week cuffed Island Def Jam Records vice prez James Roppo for failing to disperse a crowd of hysterical teenagers with the social networking equivalent of the water cannon - a tweet. Thousands of young girls turned up at a shopping mall in Garden City, New York, last Friday expecting a gusset-moistening …

    The Register 24 Nov 09:37

    Combat games disrespect war laws, report claims

    Virtual troops should play by the same rules real ones do

    Videogames should respect the real-world rules governing wars, a report has concluded, following research into how many videogames break them. A study of 20 titles, including many from the Call of Duty and Tom Clancy series, carried out by Pro Juvenile – an organisation which aims to protect kids from unlimited videogame …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 09:02

    Samsung X520 notebook

    Review Nine-hour battery life – hit or myth?

    With smooth, curved edges and an eye-pleasing design, the 15.6in X520 slips into Samsung’s new X-series range. There are two other X-series models: the 11.6in X120 and 14in X420. The focus is on mobility here and, as such, all feature so-called CULV - Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage - processors and integrated graphics from Intel …

    Reg Hardware 24 Nov 08:02

    Imation notebook flash upgrade as easy as pi to 30 places

    This isn't rocket science... it's brain surgery!

    You now have the option of pepping up your sorry notebook by using an Imation solid state drive (SSD) upgrade kit, but only if you are happy getting inside its casing and swapping out its hard drive for the SSD. The aim is to replace the HDD with an Imation M-Class 2.5-inch SSD, with either 64G or 128GB capacity. The upgrade …

    Channel Register 24 Nov 08:02

    iPhone conquers half the (smartphone) world

    But there's an Android approaching

    Apple's iPhone now accounts for 50 per cent of worldwide smartphone usage, according to a new report. But off in the distance, there's an Android approaching. The latest traffic figures (PDF) from AdMob - the mobile ad-servicing shop recently acquired by Google - are less kind to Symbian and Palm. According to the report, …

    The Register 24 Nov 07:02

    Government ICT spending heads for plateau

    Evening out

    Public sector spending on ICT is set to stabilise over the next five years. New research from Kable shows that while government is placing the brakes on the spending surge of recent years, the drives for efficiency and radical changes in service provision will open up new areas of growth. The UK public sector ICT overview and …

    The Register 24 Nov 07:02

    Wikipedia springs free labor leak

    Where have all the fiddlers gone?

    Wikipedia is leaking free labor - and fast. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, a new Wikistudy says that in the first three months of the year, the "encyclopedia anyone can edit" lost 49,000 more volunteer contributors than it gained. That's ten times the net loss from the same period last year, according to a study …

    The Register 24 Nov 06:59

    Adaptec sacks sales chief, boots CEO from board

    Gotta Steel yourself

    Adaptec has suddenly fired John Noellert, its worldwide sales boss, and Adaptec's CEO has been voted off the board. Adaptec is the server I/O adapter company that has been struggling to make profits and lost a boardroom and investor battle two weeks ago when activist investor Steel Partners gained control of the board in a …

    The Register 24 Nov 06:02

    Cray previews XT6 Opteron nodes

    SC09 Cash for number clunkers

    The SC09 supercomputing trade show finished up late last week, but El Reg still has a bunch of things to tell you about. One of them is a preview of the Opteron blade server for the upcoming high-end XT6 and midrange XT6m supercomputers from Cray. Like all of the progeny of the Red Storm supercomputer that Cray built for …

    The Register 24 Nov 00:24

    HP floats Q4 profit on services biz

    Everything else takes a swim

    Hewlett-Packard's profits grew 14 per cent in the fiscal fourth quarter, boosted by corporate cost-cutting and solid performance by its enormous services unit. The vendor's successes helped offset major losses in revenue in just about everything that's not services, including consumer PCs; enterprise storage and servers; …

    The Register 24 Nov 00:12

  5. Monday, 23 November 2009

    Facebookers hit with steamy clickjacking exploit

    'Click da button, baby!'

    Facebook administrators have blocked a clickjacking exploit that displayed images of a scantily clad woman on profile pages without first prompting the user for permission. The attack began when a victim encountered the image of the near-naked woman on a friend's profile page along with the words "Want 2 C something hot? Click …

    The Register 23 Nov 23:18

    IBM's cat-brain sim a 'scam,' says Swiss boffin

    Neuroscientist hairs on end

    Responding to its nation's sovereign call to develop electronics with the intelligence of a cat, IBM last week announced a major step in feline gray matter simulation. But professional rivalries clearly run deep inside puss brain replication circles, with a leading neuroscientist blasting the project as a "scam" and a "mass …

    The Register 23 Nov 22:11

    IE bug leaks private details from 50m PDF files

    Black hat recon courtesy of Microsoft

    A bug in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is causing more than 50 million files stored online to leak potentially sensitive information that could compromise user privacy, a security researcher said. The documents stored in Adobe's PDF format display the internal disk location where the file is stored, an oversight that …

    The Register 23 Nov 20:54

    Rogue iPhone dev unmoved by App Store spin

    Jobsian VP defends trademark police

    Apple marketing veep Phil Schiller has put another smiley face on company's capricious iPhone App Store approval process - but at least one developer who spent months battling the App Store police isn't buying Schiller's spin. As The Reg reported ten days ago, a bug-fix to Airfoil Speakers Touch - an iPhone app from long-time …

    The Register 23 Nov 19:31

    Bing search bribery a retailer magnet

    Microsoft's Black Friday redemption

    Bing has boosted Microsoft's retailer revenues by nearly 50 per cent, according to a new search-ad study. With a report released this morning, the click counters at SearchIgnite tell the world that during the first half of the all-important fourth quarter, US retailers spend 47 per cent more on Redmondian search ads they did …

    The Register 23 Nov 19:02

    Google hoodwinked into pushing Chrome OS scareware

    Tamper tantrum

    Rogue anti-virus scammers have tainted search results for Chromium OS - the open source version of Google's Chrome OS - in a bid to expose surfers hunting the web operating system to a fake anti-virus scan scam instead. Search terms such as "chromium os download" point to sites featuring scripts that redirect stray surfers …

    The Register 23 Nov 18:46

    Cisco pumps out iPhone security app

    World of IT threats in your pants

    Cisco has pushed out a new iPhone app that helps IT managers respond to newly-detected security threats by the seat (pocket) of their pants. The Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application beams in data from the company's Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) to show a customizable menagerie of security information that could …

    The Register 23 Nov 18:25

    Weather balloons no longer a crazy idea for rural coverage

    Base jumping

    As the US gets serious about opening up mobile broadband to its entire population, it is hunting for new spectrum options to support that. The UHF digital TV switchover spectrum sell-off brought in around $20bn, and one of the key uses of this 700MHz band will be to support long range radio signals to cover rural America more …

    The Register 23 Nov 18:02

    PC sales bounce up (and down)

    Netbooks drag year-end uptick

    The box counters at Gartner have revised their PC shipment estimates for 2009, saying that PC makers did better than expected pumping out machines in the third quarter. But because average selling prices are falling - thanks in part to the advent of cheap netbooks and general price erosion across all PC types - sales are still …

    Channel Register 23 Nov 17:20

    Symantec Japan website bamboozled by hacker

    Plaintext passwords revealed

    A Symantec-run website was vulnerable to Blind SQL Injection problems that reportedly exposes a wealth of potentially sensitive information. Romanian hacker Unu used off-the-shelf tools (Pangolin and sqlmap) to steal a glimpse at the database behind Symantec's Japanese website. A peek at the Symantec store revealed by the hack …

    The Register 23 Nov 16:58

    New analysis points to ancient Martian ocean, river valleys

    Just a matter of finding sea-monster skeletons, now

    NASA-funded boffins say they have found convincing evidence that much of Mars was once covered by an ocean of liquid water, and that rain fell on the red planet long ago. The new research comes from scientists at Northern Illinois University and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, who have done a new computer …

    The Register 23 Nov 16:10

    Wind turbines to power phone masts

    Cold Green calling?

    Forget mobile phone covers made of recycled plastic bottles or handsets powered by sunlight. If you really want to make a green phone call then move to California, where some phone masts will soon run on wind energy. Helix Wind's turbines capture wind using a helix shaped blades Wind turbine manufacturer Helix Wind has …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 16:03

    T-Orange won't share the airwaves

    Get your own damn spectrum, mooch

    T-Mobile and Orange won't be handing over any radio spectrum when they merge, despite the fact that T-Orange will own almost half the available airways. The combined force will have licences to operate in 170MHz of radio spectrum, compared to Vodafone's holding of 76MHz and Orange's 66MHz, but the operating officers of both …

    The Register 23 Nov 15:49

    Exascale computing: How do we get there from here?

    IBM guru Dave Turek tells us what's what

    Exascale supercomputers, the computing industry’s next frontier, will run 1,000 times quicker than the fastest computers of today – and the world’s scientific researchers are sure to drum up plenty of projects to harness their compute power. But how do we get there from here? It won't be easy. So who better to ask than Dave …

    The Register 23 Nov 15:38

    Moller Skycar to finally crash and burn?

    Desperate last-gasp spin: 'Virtual flight tests' start

    (In)famous flying-car firm Moller International - whose four-decade quest to produce an Everyman aerial ride has seen no aircraft delivered and a 2003 fine from the SEC for selling "fraudulent unregistered stock" - has now announced "Virtual Test Flights of [a] New Flying Car". It seems that Moller has "created a full-featured …

    The Register 23 Nov 15:19

    Spotify embraces Symbian

    Appy talking

    Music-streaming service Spotify is now available on Symbian handsets too, for paying subscribers at least. Spotify already has a mobile client, but that's limited to Apple's iPhone and devices running Android; Symbian might not have as many headlines, but it's running on more than half the world's smartphones and Spotify needs …

    The Register 23 Nov 14:54

    Savage roo mauls Oz man

    What's that Skippy? You're trying to drown my dog?

    An Oz man has taken a serious pasting at the hands of a "savage" kangaroo which was attempting to drown his dog, the Herald Sun reports. Chris Rickard, 49, was walking on his property in Arthurs Creek, Victoria with his pet mutt Rocky when the pair woke the 'roo, which was having a kip in long grass next to his farm dam (water …

    The Register 23 Nov 14:52

    AOL taps strategy boutique ahead of Time Warner spin-off

    Dotty logo revamp strikes bum note

    AOL has revamped its logo and plans to launch the new look after its parent company Time Warner dumps the struggling web outfit early next month. What starts with A, ends in L and has a big fat O in the middle? The firm, like an ageing divorcee whose husband ran off with a younger, leggier mistress, announced its brand …

    The Register 23 Nov 14:34

    Erotica 09: Bit limp, but crowds still up for it

    NSFW I'll have what she's having

    In a week when scientists trumpeted the discovery of a new drug to boost flagging female libido, Erotica 2009 - the UK’s premiere female-friendly erotic event - was looking decidedly limp. According to its lavishly illustrated brochure, Erotica is all about "serious fun". The annual event, now in its 14th year, is starting to …

    The Register 23 Nov 14:33

    Pegatron smartbook uncloaked?

    Early 2010 release possible

    Following recent confirmation that Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron plans to launch a machine of its own early next year, a 10in fanless netbook sporting the firm’s logo has been spotted. Pegatron has confirmed plans to launch a smartbook in Q1 2010 Source: Shanzai Powered by an ARM processor and running the Ubuntu …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 13:50

    Drobo restrings boxes to double-up product range

    New storage boxes are bigger on the inside

    Data Robotics has added two new products, enhancing both the basic Drobo and the more capable Drobo Pro. It now claims to provide the simplest and best value iSCSI SAN in the world. Drobo has - had - two products; the basic Drobo and Drobo Pro. These provide a protected and consolidated pool of storage that can withstand drive …

    The Register 23 Nov 13:39

    iPhone worm hjacks ING customers

    Updated No messing this time

    The second worm to infect jailbroken iPhone users reportedly targets customers of Dutch online bank ING Direct. Surfers visiting the site with infected devices are redirected to a phishing site designed to harvest online banking login details, the BBC reports. ING Direct told the BBC it planned to warn users' of the attack via …

    The Register 23 Nov 13:28

    We're going for optimised workload delivery...

    Workshop Are we nearly there yet?

    Who wouldn’t want IT to be delivered in a more dynamic, flexible, agile, [insert your least detested buzzword here] way? Optimal configurations for server and desktop workload delivery have been discussed, and indeed, attempted, for many years. So how close are we to really nailing this? The answer to this question may depend …

    The Register 23 Nov 13:23

    Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2

    Review Windows 7 on a netbook - worth the wait?

    Lenovo’s new IdeaPad S10-2 is an update of the S10e. The hardware is conventional netbook fare with a dual-core Atom processor and a 10.1in screen all dressed up in a smart chassis that makes it look like a baby ThinkPad. There have been a number of updates for this model, such as an increase in the frontside bus speed for the …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 12:57

    Credit crunch? It won't be over by Christmas

    Cheap credit is over and its not coming back, says CBI

    The impact of the recession on British businesses may well be permanent, and will certainly last until well into the next decade, the UK's union for bosses has declared. The downturn has had four major impacts on UK firms, according to business lobby group the Confederation of British Industry. British business does not …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:44

    Google to anoint Android, Chrome OS love (eventually)

    When two become one

    Google has confessed that its Chrome OS and Android projects are likely to come together at some stage down the line as the firm continues to tinker with its operating system vision of the future. The world's largest ad broker has been developing two platforms independently from one another. Android is an operating system …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:35

    Microsoft's IE 9, Silverlight 4 and the whiff of lock-in

    Radio Reg Shoulda bought Yahoo! Amazon

    Basking in the afterglow of the recently released Windows 7, Microsoft has rallied the faithful to share the love at its annual Professional Developers' Conference in Los Angeles, California. Traditionally, PDC has been about looking ahead and charting the roadmap of the next few years. Previous years saw Windows Vista and …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:24

    GPS alarm seems alarmingly useless

    You're safe with me. Unless stuff crashes

    The Freedom Personal Safety is a GPS device that's supposed to alert loved ones that you're in trouble, but actually seems about as trustworthy as the only other man in the train carriage who appears to have moved a seat closer to you every time you look. The product will set you back £79.95, but comes in a nice yellow box …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:23

    MIT boffins invent robot clam-grapnel

    Tech has important mole-cruiser implications, too

    MIT boffins are pleased to annouce that they have at last perfected a long-sought-after technology - that of the robot clam. It seems that metal shellfish able to dig themselves into the seabed will make excellent anchors for somewhat larger droid submarines. Amos Winter and colleagues at MIT unveiled their mechanical …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:17

    Coprocessors ride again

    Hybrid-core computing

    The idea that hybrid computing is becoming a mainstream technology was one of the major threads running through SC09 last week. Convey Computer, founded in 2006, has a different take on how to best implement hybrid architectures, to deliver better performance and to simplify use. Its approach is to add an FPGA coprocessor that …

    The Register 23 Nov 12:10

    Palm Pre update inbound

    From WebOS 1.1.3 to 1.3.1

    The Pre smartphone will be refreshed with an updated webOS “within the next few days”, manufacturer Palm has promised. A Pré update is due within days Customers of Telefonica – that’s O2 to you and me – in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain will be automatically updated from WebOS 1.1.3 to version 1.3.1 when within range of …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 12:10

    Microsoft stands tall over Xbox Live lawsuit threat

    'We're well within our rights,' claims software giant

    The possibility of class-action lawsuit arising from the ban of roughly 1m gamers from Xbox Live doesn’t worry Microsoft, because the firm believes it is in the right. With a view to launching a class action lawsuit against the software giant, US law firm Abington IP last week published a webpage calling for anyone remotely …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 11:29

    Fusion-io whips out fast gov-grade ioDrive

    Cramming eight on a card

    Fusion-io has put eight of its ioDrives on a single PCIe card to produce 800,000 IOPS and 6GB/sec bandwidth. The ioDrive is a NAND flash solid state drive (SSD) that sits on a PCIe X4 card and comes with 80 or 120GB of single level cell (SLC) flash or 320GB of slower but cheaper multi-level cell (MLC) flash. These ioDrives …

    The Register 23 Nov 11:28

    New hacker peril for older IE versions

    New species of unpatched bug bites IE6 and 7

    Internet Explorer users are at risk from a newly discovered and unpatched vulnerability in older versions of Microsoft's browser. A security flaw involving a dangling pointer in Microsoft's HTML Viewer (mshtml.dll) creates a possible mechanism for hackers to crash the browser and inject malware, providing they can trick marks …

    The Register 23 Nov 11:19

    Looking back at packaged application rigidity and lock-in

    Workshop Have we progressed that much in 25 years?

    When packaged applications first appeared on the scene a quarter of a century ago, it was normal for them to be very proprietary in nature. Modifications and extensions were generally implemented through toolsets and programming languages that were each specific to the application concerned. Integration between systems was …

    The Register 23 Nov 11:06

    Dell details smartphone spec

    Mini 3i internals revealed

    Dell has come clean on the full specifications of its Mini 3i smartphone, and it doesn't impress. Dell's Mini 3i: not the iPhone killer some had hoped for Dell announced earlier this month that its Mini 3i smartphone – which runs China Mobile’s Android-based oPhone platform - would launch in China towards the end of this …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 11:05

    O/S bloat: What's the cure?

    Comment Code belly's gonna get you

    It is becoming increasingly obvious that a virtual server wastes great chunks of its memory occupied by the operating system wrappers around the applications in the virtual machines (VM) running in the physical server. If each VM occupies 50MB, and 20MB of that is the Windows O/S, then around 40 per cent of the servers's DRAM …

    The Register 23 Nov 10:48

    eBay blames success for failure

    Saturday search fail

    eBay suffered an embarrassing failure on Saturday as no one was able to search on the site - not a good thing at the start of Christmas shopping season. The outage is made worse for the online tat bazaar because it is moving away from mom'n'pop traders to more professional sellers who expect better service, in exchange for …

    The Register 23 Nov 10:44

    E-book readers to stay pricey next year

    Won't hit $100 for ages, says screen supplier

    Holding out for a £100 e-book reader before snapping up one of these gadgets for yourself? You may get lucky this year, but don't expect prices to fall any further. Scott Liu, head of screen maker PVI - the Taiwanese firm that recently bought e-ink pioneer E Ink - forecast today that readers will not drop to hit the $100 (£61 …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 10:41

    DVLA doubles annual IT spend

    IBM can buy itself a Bentley

    The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is to more than double what it spends annually on its IT deal with IBM. It has signed a three-year extension to its existing Partners Achieving Change Together (Pact) ten-year deal, which covers technical infrastructure, operation and support, as well as transformation and system …

    The Register 23 Nov 10:39

    Virtualisation in the smaller business

    Lab Are things really any different to the big boys?

    Many of your comments on some of the virtualisation articles we have written to date have suggested that smaller organisations have different challenges and priorities when it comes to virtualisation. Here we report back on what we have been told so far and ask you for your insights. The majority of vendors assume that small …

    The Register 23 Nov 10:37

    New sensitive space gloves: NASA spends wad freely

    Glovely cash for astro haberdashers

    NASA handed out $350,000 in prize money to astronautical haberdashers vying for glory in the space agency's Astronaut Glove Challenge this weekend. They said I was mad. Mad! Peter Horner of Maine, a previous Glove Challenge victor, saw off stiff opposition from Ted Southern of Brooklyn. Horner's glove was deemed to have all …

    The Register 23 Nov 09:57

    eBay stamps on Mussolini's brain

    Pulls Il Duce body bits auction

    Customers of online tat bazaar eBay were on Friday denied the chance to bid for bits of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, when the site swiftly pulled a listing for samples of his blood and brain. The alleged remains of Il Duce, in three glass ampoules, were pitched at a starting price of €15,000. His granddaughter …

    The Register 23 Nov 09:30

    Murdoch puffs Microsoft over Google

    Redmond aligns with the empire of The Sun

    Rupert Murdoch is in talks with Microsoft over his plans to delist his newspaper websites from Google. Of course, if he was serious about this, he could get his techies to add a robots.txt file to all News Corp sites and effectively disappear from Google immediately. But he needs to keep an audience or he'll lose advertising …

    The Register 23 Nov 09:27

    Chrysler dumps e-car plans

    Leccy Tech Gone, but not forgotten?

    Chrysler's e-car strategy has vanished down the plughole, taking with it any chance of us getting intimate with the Lotus Europa-based Dodge Circuit. Chrysler's ENVI arm is to close, ending hope of the Lotus Europa-based Dodge Circuit Things have been ominously quiet at Chrysler's ENVI e-car division for a while and now the …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 09:02

    Imation ships wirelessly-connected hard drive

    USB 2.0 wireless

    Imation has announced its external hard drive that connects by wireless USB to PCs and Macs is now shipping. The Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive comes in a 3.5in form-factor and holds up to 1.5TB of data. It is based on Imation's Apollo external hard drive platform fitted with a USB wireless facility that talks on a one-to-one …

    The Register 23 Nov 08:02

    Freeview HD - your questions answered

    All you need to know

    With the first Freeview HD transmissions scheduled to start on the 2 December in the London, Liverpool and Manchester areas, Register Hardware answers all your questions about the new telly technology. New Zealand's Freeview HD logo. What will Blighty' look like? What do I need to receive Freeview HD? You’ll need a TV or …

    Reg Hardware 23 Nov 08:02

    EU ministers agree e-government aims

    Get smart

    European ministers have signed a declaration outlining policies to deliver 'smarter' online public services by 2015. At the fifth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö in Sweden on 19 and 20 November 2009, EU ministers agreed measures to make e-government more accessible, interactive and customised. The aims over the …

    The Register 23 Nov 07:02

  6. Sunday, 22 November 2009

    Atlantis astronaut flying high over baby's birth

    Houston, we have a daddy

    NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik ventured out on his first spacewalk on Saturday, just hours before his daughter was born 220 miles below. Waking up early this morning aboard the International Space Station to the song "Butterfly Kisses," mission specialist Bresnik was informed that his wife Rebecca had given birth to daughter …

    The Register 22 Nov 23:28

    First malicious iPhone worm slithers into wild

    Jailbreakers under assault

    A Dutch internet service provider has identified a worm that installs a backdoor on jailbroken iPhones and makes them part of a botnet. The worm, according to XS4ALL, targets jailbroken iPhones whose owners have carelessly failed to change the default password. In addition to connecting to a Lithuanian master command channel, …

    The Register 22 Nov 22:57

    eBooks: What to read on which reader

    Your pre-Christmas guide to what's on

    eBook readers will be everywhere this Christmas, in the shops if not under the trees, but even publishers don't seem to know what books one can read on the things. Amazon's Kindle makes things simple: one store with 296,947 books available, and if it's not there then you can't have it. But competitive hardware can get content …

    The Register 22 Nov 10:02

    Is data overload killing off human initiative?

    Book Review Time to add a delete button to the internet

    Delete – The Virtue of Forgetting in a Digital Age is one of those high premise pseudo-techy works that appeals to the chattering classes – not least because it beguiles them with a false sense of "doing technology". As modern technology has enhanced our ability to remember everything, no matter how inconsequential, the time …

    The Register 22 Nov 09:02

    Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say

    No repairs for 'biohazard' Macs

    A Mac user claims that Apple voided her warranty and refused to repair her machine because it was "contaminated" with cigarette smoke. The claim mirrors a similar report from last year, when another user complained that the Jobsian cult wouldn't service a system due to the "health risks of secondhand smoke." Both complaints …

    The Register 22 Nov 06:13

  7. Saturday, 21 November 2009

    Triumph in Geneva! LHC beams up and running again

    Dimensional portal invasion back on track

    There were emotional scenes last night at the headquarters of underground international atom-smasher science alliance CERN, as joyful boffins celebrated the successful restarting of the Large Hadron Collider. The colossal machine circulated its first beam around the entire 27-km supermagnet circuit at 22:01 Swiss time, and sent …

    The Register 21 Nov 09:39

    TomTom Start satnav

    Review Made for map lovers, apparently...

    TomTom's Start is essentially the satnav specialist's new low-end model. Rather than say so, though, it's not pitching the product on price but for its simplicity. It's a device designed to get you from A to B and nothing more. TomTom's Start: cuts to the chase with a simple, straightforward UI But it's also being described …

    Reg Hardware 21 Nov 09:02

    Channel 4 raises Bing word-extinction alarm

    UK TV channel forecasts end of language

    Roll over Wittgenstein, Channel 4 has a bold claim to make, thanks to New Media guru Benjamin Cohen. It's trumpeted in what must be the weirdest press release we've received in years - or at least since the Blooks one. We reproduce it in full, trying to give you a flavour of the insane typography: PLEASE CREDIT CHANNEL 4 NEWS …

    The Register 21 Nov 08:02

    SQL Server 2008 - from semi-relational to sublime

    Review Inside Microsoft's R2 preview

    SQL Server 2008 R2 is a step closer to reality. On the heels of August's first code drop, Microsoft has released a second, more-fully-featured community technology preview (CTP) of its next database server. It promises a number of things, including improved business intelligence through database changes and integration with …

    The Register 21 Nov 00:57

    Blogger outs back-end Google tech

    'Super elastic, soft, smooth. Highly absorbent, for you always!'

    A Vietnamese blogger has alerted the world to another Google product. Details are sketchy at best. In fact, all we have is a photo: Another Google product The photo - whose authenticity has yet to be verified - seems to indicate the product is some sort of "2 ply bathroom paper" made from "100 per cent virgin pulp." …

    The Register 21 Nov 00:26

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