Friday, 05 September 2008

• MySQL daddy quitting Sun? — The Register
  'Technically, there is no resignation letter'
  MySQL co-founder Micheal "Monty" Widenius may quit Sun Microsystems, less than seven months after Sun paid $1bn for his free database outfit. Yesterday, Valleywag reported that Monty - the primary architect of the original MySQL database - had resigned from the company, and though a MySQL marketing genius called the news "a …
• World goes mad as Bill and Jerry eat churros — The Register
  Microsoft's Seinfeld ad ignores Microsoft
  Microsoft has debuted the first commercial starring its $10m Vista pitchman, Jerry Seinfeld. The ad shows the funnyman spotting Bill Gates shopping at a discount shoe store, whereupon churros, foot sizes, wearing clothes in the shower, and chewy computers are discussed – anything but Windows Vista, it seems. Reactions …
• Japanese researchers check IDs with eyeball twitch — The Register
  'Spoof-proof' biometrics
  Biometric identity scanners are attracting more attention as safe way to handle user authentication and security. But a team of Japanese researchers claim current methods are bunk if approached by a sufficiently sophisticated intruder. Iris scans, electronic fingerprinting and signature recognition – they're certainly better …
• Crimeware giants form botnet tag team — The Register
  Rock Phish's big, fat, fast-flux network
  The Rock Phish gang - one of the net's most notorious phishing outfits - has teamed up with another criminal heavyweight called Asprox in overhauling its network with state-of-the-art technology, according to researchers from RSA. Over the past five months, Rock Phishers have painstakingly refurbished their infrastructure, …
• Yahoo! shares! hit! five! year! low! — The Register
  Microhoo! chances 'negligible'
  Yahoo!'s share price dipped to $17.75 on Thursday, hitting its lowest point since October 2003. As the Associated Press points out, the company's market value now sits at about $13bn below what Microsoft would have lavished on investors had Jerry Yang and crew accepted Redmond's May takeover bid. Steve Ballmer's final Microhoo …
• EA Europe struggles squeezing out Spore — The Register
  Login problems at launch
  Electronic Arts can't seem to fix login problems preventing many customers from taking Spore online during its European launch day. Since yesterday, many early customers have reported an inability to log into EA's UK servers. The errors messages appear to range from "invalid login" to "you do not have the proper spore.com …
• US startup launches online airwaves market — The Register
  Secondhand spectrum swap
  Spectrum trading - the ability for licence holders to sell on, or sub let, their frequencies - has been broadly endorsed by both the FCC and Ofcom, so now a US company has done the obvious thing and set up a market for the buying and selling of radio frequencies. SpecEx is launched today, with spectrum worth $250 million up …
• Orange can't find BlackBerry maps — The Register
  But will sell you their alternative
  Punters getting themselves a BlackBerry Bold from Orange are finding the in-built mapping application absent, and are being asked to pay for the Orange alternative despite the original adverts clearly stating the in-built app would be included. The adverts in question appeared on the Orange website, and used to clearly state …
• Price cutting rivals eat into Nokia's market share — The Register
  Shares fall sharply on falling market share
  Nokia has signalled an end to its uninterrupted growth, predicting that its market share would shrink, slightly, during the current quarter - though it will of course still increase over the whole year. Nokia reckons its misfortune is down to competitors cutting prices beyond what's sustainable, in an attempt to grab market …
• Blazing Vaios: Sony's hot-tops hit the UK, too — Channel Register
  Burning laptops not just in US
  Sony secretly wrote to its UK channel partners earlier this week warning them that the company planned to recall some Vaio TZ-series laptops, The Register has learned. The firm, which was forced to recall 440,000 Vaio notebooks worldwide because of wiring faults that could cause overheating, asked its Blighty resellers to “ …
• America's CTO: We have a winner — The Register
  Poll Results The people's choice vs Larry
  In one of the tightest contests ever seen in a Reg poll, columnist and software developer Ted Dziuba has emerged as the people's choice to be Barack Obama's "Chief Technology Officer". Dziuba beat off a stiff challenge from Hans Reiser, the fallen Linux guru who was sentenced to 15 years for murder in an Oakland, Ca. court last …
• DARPA funds radical disco-copter concept — The Register
  Spinning-platter switchblade chopper takes wing
  Pentagon boffinry chiefs, not content with the existing panoply of wacky new whirly-copter concepts, are to fund still another radical rotary wing project - the "DiscRotor". The idea of the DiscRotor is that of a helicopter with a large circular saucer-like hub and ordinary rotor blades extending out from it. The disco-copter …
• MS preps four critical updates for September — The Register
  Patch Tuesday train chugs into view
  Microsoft plans to release four security bulletins next Tuesday as part of the September edition of its monthly Patch Tuesday update cycle. The four slated updates - all described by Redmond as critical - covering remote code injection risks affecting Media Player, Windows Media Encoder, Office, and Windows. All supported …
• Sun and NetApp gain market share — The Register
  Gartner data bad news for top 5 external storage vendors
  Sun showed everyone a clean pair of heels as it grew its external disk storage market share faster than any other vendor in the second quarter of the year according to Gartner. IDC's quarterly disk disk market tracker also shows Sun way out in front. The Gartner report tracks world-wide external controller-based disk storage …
• Debian components breach terms of GPLv2 — The Register
  You want source code with that?
  A top Debian contributor has been left "pretty disappointed" by elements of the Debian community for failing to comply with the conditions of the GNU GPLv2 license. Daniel Baumann, who maintains the Debian Syslinux bootloader package, has said Debian components were being released only in binary form without source code - …
• Ten tweaks for a new Acer Aspire One — Reg Hardware
  Hands on Take charge of Linpus
  Acer's Aspire One is ready to go out of the box, but if you've opted for the Linux version and you're new to the OS, you may be wondering how to started. Here are ten things to try. Before we start, a warning. Later tips involve working with Linux configuration files, which do not take kindly to errors. Check your typing very …
• Sophos DNS snafu creates update problems — The Register
  Bad hair day nothing to do with hackers
  Domain name system problems left some users of Sophos unable to get security updates on Friday. The same issue, blamed on a mistake by one of the security firm's service providers rather than hostile action, left many surfers unable to access its main sophos.com website. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, …
• Police quiz BT on secret Phorm trials — The Register
  RIPA? Never heard of it officer...
  City of London police questioned BT earlier this week as part of a probe into the covert wiretapping and profiling of the internet use of tens of thousands of BT customers during tests of Phorm's adware system. City of London CID met BT representatives on Tuesday. Officers have been examining the dossier of evidence handed to …
• EA free petrol stunt triggers north London gridlock — The Register
  Shoot-em-up promo creates real life car chaos
  Another great moment in the annals of computer game PR stunts today - Electronic Arts caused gridlock this morning by offering £40 of free petrol to punters in Finsbury Park, north London. Given current petrol costs, this led to over 500 drivers fighting to get on the forecourt from early this morning. The publisher offered £ …
• DNA database costs soar — The Register
  Prying is pricey
  Home Office figures show that the cost of running the national DNA database has more than doubled since 2002-03. Meg Hillier MP said that in 2002-03 the cost of DNA database services was £774,300, but that service and IT development delivery costs for 2008-09 are projected as £1.77m. In 2006-07, that figure reached £2.04m, …
• Boffins use heartbeat to thwart wireless implant hack — The Register
  Chinese cardiac crypto
  Interfering with wireless medical implants sounds like a movie threat plot rather than a real risk - but if there is a threat, Chinese boffins have come up with an ingenious solution for combating it. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a technique for using a patient's heartbeat as the source …
• I was a government guinea pig, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt — The Register
  Gargantuan US child health study - all take?
  What will the US government owe the hundreds of thousands of Americans it will swab, prick, track and trace over the next 21 years, in the largest children's health study ever? So far, the answer from the National Children's Study is "not much". The study, a joint effort led by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the …
• Chubby crims more likely to leave dabs — The Register
  'You're nicked, fatty'
  Obese criminals are more likely to leave their fingerprints at crime scenes because of the amount of salty food they eat. A police boffin has developed a new way of examining the corrosion on bullet casings and knife blades that is caused by minuscule amounts of salt in hand sweat, according to the Daily Telegraph. Dr John …
• Pure Digital Evoke Flow internet radio — Reg Hardware
  Review Pure entertainment pleasure
  After two years in development, Pure Digital has created what it hopes will become internet radio’s first genuinely iconic product. Our first reaction was that this is a really attractive little radio. The company has kept the familiar Evoke casing, but coated the device in a gloss piano-black finish with stylish and solid- …
• Samsung parades Omnia 3G smartphone — Reg Hardware
  Last night, at a lavish event in London, Samsung proudly paraded its brand new 3G Windows Mobile 6.1-based touchscreen handset, the SGH-i900 -aka Omnia. The Omnia was first seen back in April at a European trade fair, but it hasn't been known exactly when Samsung would make its frontal assault on the iPhone available in the UK …
• Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe — The Register
  No 'strangelet soup' for you
  Boffins preparing to fire up the most powerful particle-smasher ever built have released another reassuring report which says that their machine will definitely not destroy the universe - nor even the planet Earth. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a titanic 27-kilometre doughnut made of ultra-chilly superconductor magnet pipe …
• Employee has no privacy on company computers, US court rules — The Register
  What's yours is ours
  Employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for material stored on computers owned by their employers, a US court has ruled. The New Jersey court said that files on a work-owned computer can be accessed and searched if the company gives permission, even if the user does not. The ruling came in the case of a man …
• Columbia set to resurrect Ghostbusters — The Register
  Egon, your mucus - again
  Columbia Pictures has asked The Office co-executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to work up a script for a third outing of Ghostbusters, Variety reports. The plan is apparently to reunite original cast Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis for the project. The latter has just directed comedy …
• BOFH: Lock and reload — The Register
  Episode 29 Cheap at four times the price
  "We should sue!" the PFY snaps angrily, thumping the Boss's desk with vigour. "We can't let them get away with this!" "Really?" the Boss asks. "I'd hardly have thought you'd want to sue a fellow professional?" "PROFESSIONAL!" the PFY gasps. "They're cowboys! What sort of outsourcing company wouldn't put in a redundant …
• My name really is Ivan O'Toole, admits Ivan O'Toole — The Register
  Parents, eh?
  The regular readers among you will know we're a bit fond of stories relating to parents who slap their sprogs with ill-advised or downright perverse names, as evidenced by the cases of 4Real, Metallica, @, John Blake Cusack Version 2.0, Renault Megane and, spectacularly, Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Well, this in-depth …
• North Korean Mata Hari in alleged cyber-spy plot — The Register
  Updated Tales of sex, spying and spyware
  South Korea has accused its neighbour North Korea of cyber-espionage during the trial of a suspected Mata Hari-style spy. However some political commentators are suggesting that the case against alleged spy Won Jeong Hwa is unsupported by evidence and riddled with inconsistencies. North Korea's electronic warfare division …
• Facebook - The Movie! Exclusive storyboard peek — The Register
  White-knuckle rollercoaster of a movie in prospect
  The recent shock news that Sony had commissioned West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin to knock together a screenplay about how Facebook redefined just about every paradigm open to redefinition was greeted with a mixture of horror, disbelief and out-and-out jaw-dropping incredulity among Reg readers. Well, we've pulled off a bit of a …
• Enough is enough! Plasmon board recommends sale — The Register
  $25 million private equity bid approach supported
  Enough's enough! Get me outta here. The Hanover Investors-backed Plasmon board has had it up to here and is pulling the plug. With Q1 fiscal '09 sales 20 per cent below expectations it's showing positive feelings towards a $25 million bid from a US-based technology private equity firm, identity unknown. Plasmon is a developer …
• Wireless music streamers — Reg Hardware
  Group Test Sends songs to your hi-fi with these four systems
  The Roku Soundbridge M1001, Logitech's Squeezebox Duet, Philips' Streamium NP1100 and the Sonos Digital Music System all offer ways to get the music on your hard drive to pump out of your stereo. They do so in various forms with various extra functionalities and at various prices, but at the end of the day they all do …
• How Chrome puts the skids under Nokia — The Register
  Analysis What does Gears mean for the mobile web?
  Google's first web browser is here, and I've been trying it out. The diminutive feature set, in line with our expectations of Google, is welcome. However, as with IE7, I find it hard to orient myself in a browser without a menu bar. At the end of the day, as Google put it itself, it's just another WebKit-based browser. The …
• Government told: Release secret Iraq documents — The Register
  Additions to sexed-up weapons docs
  The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has told the government that it should release draft versions of a dossier about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and comments made on it by spy chiefs. The Hutton Inquiry resulted in much of the dossier, prepared for the Joint Intelligence Committee, being made public. …
• Those old timer sign results in full — The Register
  And the winners are...
  It's hats off to you, our beloved readers, for your massive response to our challenge to create an "Elderly people" sign to replace the current couple of cripples hobbling down to the bingo - an image which doesn't much impress campaigning old timers organisation Age Concern. Well, it's taken us a while to sift through your …
• Dell plots worldwide factory sell-off — Channel Register
  Outsource to compete
  Dell is trying to offload ownership of its factories worldwide as part of an overhaul of its production strategy, reports say. The one-time PC champ has been in negotiations with major contract manufacturers and expects to flog most or all of its facilities "within the next 18 months", according to the Wall Street Journal. …
• NetApp brings StoreVault home to mom — Channel Register
  StoreVault becomes standard NetApp product available world-wide
  NetApp has brought its separate low-end StoreVault product range in-house, as a standard NetApp S family product available to its worldwide resellers. StoreVault is a low-end NetApp storage array packaged for small and medium enterprises and remote and branch offices (ROBO). It is positioned under the FAS 2000 low-end array …
• Carbonite muscles alongside Mozy in Lenovo — The Register
  Cloud backup for IdeaPad notebooks
  According to a report, Lenovo, which picked EMC's Mozy cloud backup for its SL business notebook line, has rejected EMC and picked competing Carbonite cloud backup for its consumer IdeaPad notebooks (Should we believe a single report? The reporting Mass High Tech journal looks solid and it directly quotes Carbonite CEO David …
• HDS revving AMS — The Register
  Monterey mid-range storage refresh coming
  The wires are humming that Hitachi Data Systems is going to update its AMS mid-range storage array line with three new Monterey models. We should expect an announcement quite soon. The AMS - Adaptable Modular Storage - line was introduced in mid-2005 as the successor to the previous Thunder range, with two models: entry-level …
• Acer to sell 2m mini laptops in Q3 — Reg Hardware
  So much for Dell?
  Acer reckons it will sell 2m Small, Cheap Computers during the current quarter, which comes to a conclusion at the end of the month. Half of that total will be sold during September alone, the company said. The figures are for sales around the world. Acer's Aspire One is currently one of the best-value SCCs you can buy, with …
• Bosch strategy boutique fails greenwash test — The Register
  Saving the planet, one space shuttle launch at a time
  The marketing robots at the UK tentacle of remorseless Teutonic engineering firm Bosch haven't quite mastered the art of eco-friendly promotion guff. Their "Planet Savers" competition offers entrants the exciting opportunity of flying all expenses paid to Florida to witness the launch of the space shuttle, that wonder of our …
• 7-year-old faces M&S Inquisition — The Register
  Not just data protection, this is M&S data protection
  Calls by the Information Commissioner for organisations to stop hiding behind the Data Protection Act (DPA) fell on deaf ears this week as Marks and Spencers insisted on a seven-year-old giving official permission before an operator could talk to his mum. The Information Commissioner’s initiative was timed to coincide with the …
• Samsung set to buy SanDisk? — Reg Hardware
  Checking out 'various opportunities'
  The flash memory market is abuzz as Korean news sources, along with Reuters and Bloomberg, are reporting that Samsung Electronics is thinking about buying SanDisk. A Samsung spokesperson, James Chung, said: "We are considering various opportunities regarding SanDisk but nothing has been decided.'' SanDisk is uninformative, a …
• 4G iPod Nano spied on web — Reg Hardware
  Apple's fourth-gen iPod Nano has surfaced on the web, well ahead of next week's anticipated announcement of the product. Online business-oriented market, Alibaba, lists a screen-protector product for the new music player: Apple's 4G iPod Nano It's worth noting the device alleged to the 4G Nano matches pics that appeared …
• Next-gen netbook Intel Atom due Q3 2009 — Reg Hardware
  Roadmap reveals dual-core CPU-GPU debut
  Intel's next-gen Atom processor for Small, Cheap Computers - the successor to today's 'Diamondville' - will debut a year from now, according to the chip giant's latest roadmap. The chip, codenamed 'Pineview', will arrive in Q3 2009, according to long-term progress charts seen by Japanese-language site PCWatch. Pineview is one …
• How to stop worrying and enjoy paying for incoming calls — The Register
  Learning to love termination fees
  Termination fees - the money paid to a receiving network for connecting a call - are for the chop. The question is what, if anything, will replace them; moreover, will ordinary punters ever even notice they're paying to receive calls? Ofcom recently announced it was going to take a good look at the question of termination fees …
• 88% of IT admins would steal data if fired — The Register
  So the survey says
  An IT administrator scorned is not to be trusted, according to a study recently conducted by Cyber-Ark. The security firm claims a survey conducted on 300 security professionals found a whopping 88 per cent of IT admins would steal valuable and sensitive company information if they were fired tomorrow. Only 12 per cent said …
• Wireless pen options? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  Is there such a thing as Bluetooth - or other wireless technology - pen that will allow me to write on paper yet capture what I write, digitally? This would be a great way to take notes if, say, you only have a phone with you, not a laptop, and you can write more quickly than you can type.
• Report: IRS networks riddled with vulns, rogue servers — The Register
  Taxpayer beware
  The US Internal Revenue Service is putting tax payers at risk by operating thousands of web servers that contain security vulnerabilities or have not received proper authorization, a new report has concluded. According to the Treasury Inspector for the Tax Administration - a Treasury Department watchdog - the IRS operates 2, …

Thursday, 04 September 2008

• Amazon opens (American) video streaming shop — The Register
  Down with downloads
  Amazon's new streaming video storefront has gone live today, replacing the online retailer's previous attempt at vending digital video via downloads. Amazon Video on Demand arrives about two months after service was introduced as a beta build to a limited number of US customers. The store now lets users stream commercial- …
• Comcast files FCC impotence suit — The Register
  'We will comply without complying'
  As expected, Comcast has appealed the landmark FCC order that sanctioned the American ISP for secretly blocking BitTorrents and other peer-to-peer traffic. But the meatpuppetting cable outfit says it will comply with the order while its appeal plays out in federal court. Under the order (PDF), Comcast has until September 19 to …
• Open source release takes Linux rootkits mainstream — The Register
  Script kiddies, the DR will see you now
  The art of burying invisible malware deep inside a Linux machine is about to go mainstream, thanks to a new open-source rootkit released Thursday by Immunity Inc., a firm that supplies tools for penetration testers. When implemented, Immunity's DR, or Debug Register, makes backdoors and other types of malware extremely …
• Applet accelerating Java update M.I.A. — The Register
  Last minute glitch kills welcoming party
  Sun Microsystems planned to push out a significant update to Java today, but a last-minute snag has made its date of arrival uncertain. A Sun spokeswoman told us a problem was discovered during final testing of the release candidate of Java Standard Edition 6 Update 10. However, the company would not specify the problem or its …
• 3 punts mobile email for £2.50 a month — The Register
  Some bits are more equal the others
  UK operator 3 is celebrating their first year of mobile broadband by launching a new data tariff of £2.50 for unlimited email use, though the price doubles to a fiver a month for suit-wearers using Exchange or Notes access. Both tariffs include a data bundle, 10MB and 1GB respectively, but the e-mail access is completely …
• Scammers skirt spam shields with help from Adobe Flash — The Register
  The Viagra two step
  Online scammers have found a new way to skirt anti-spam filters, this time by making use of Adobe Flash files hosted on free websites. Spam messages with innocuous-looking content contain links to Flash-based files on ImageShack.com and elsewhere, according to a report from anti-spam service MessageLabs. Then commands embedded …
• US noses past Western Europe in 3G stakes — The Register
  No, really
  Though the US still trails in terms of freedom from mobile tyranny, it has surpassed Western Europe in the great race towards 3G. Just. Believe it or not, American wireless subscribers are now more likely to use high-speed 3G networks than subscribers in Western Europe. According to the people tracking mavens at comScore, 28. …
• Ice in fuel caused Heathrow 777 crash — The Register
  Nasty chill provoked reduced fuel flow
  The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has concluded that the 17 January crash-landing of a Boeing 777 at Heathrow was probably caused by "ice within the fuel feed system" which restricted flow to the engines. BA038 (G-YMMM), after a routine flight from Beijing, suffered reduced thrust in both engines while coming into …
• Mythbusters busted over RFID gagging — The Register
  Host backtracks on corporate pressure claims
  The co-host of popular science television show Mythbusters has backtracked on claims that the Discovery Channel spiked a planned exploration of RFID security after coming under commercial pressure from credit card companies. Previously, Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage told delegates at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in …
• Red Hat buys Qumranet, sidesteps Microsoft — The Register
  Deep down and virty
  Red Hat has bought Qumranet, the company behind KVM virtualisation technology, for about $107m in cash. The acquisition means open source software giant Red Hat will be able to offer a virtualised platform to Windows desktop customers without having to play nice with Microsoft. Qumranet birthed SolidICE, the firm's take on …
• EU parliament says yes to hydrogen cars — The Register
  They will go like a bomb
  Members of the European Parliament have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a plan to bring in common standards for hydrogen cars and hydrogen filling stations across the EU. EU Observer reports that 644 MEPs in Brussels voted in favour of a report on hydrogen vehicles, with just two against and 11 abstaining. The report calls …
• eBay sues business partners over alleged cookie stuffing — Channel Register
  Stuff this
  Internet auction site eBay is suing some of its business partners for 'cookie stuffing', a kind of advertising fraud. It claims partner sites are pretending that users have clicked on eBay ads when they have not. eBay pays other site owners to advertise its services. The site owners, or affiliates, are only paid, though, when …
• Anonymous fights Scientology in schools — The Register
  We don't need no...
  The Anonymous collective has announced a new phase in its protests against the Church of Scientology, targeting the alleged mistreatment of youngsters by Scientologists. Operation: School's Closed is due to take place on 13 September and will involve a wave of protests against the "Church of Scientology management, its …
• Ubuntu documentation in shreds — The Register
  No smart suit for you
  An ambitious plan to smarten up the online documentation for Linux distro Ubuntu has ended in failure. Dubbed the Summer of Documentation by the Ubuntu forums beginner team who devised the plan back in June, the goal was to clean up the Ubuntu Community Wiki. The documentation wiki had "fallen into a huge state of disrepair …
• Vodafone grabs carrier exclusive on HSDPA Dell Minis — Reg Hardware
  Carrier wins exclusive sales rights
  Vodafone has become the first carrier to say that it'll sell Dell's newly announced Inspiron Mini 9 little laptop. And it'll be the only carrier to do so. It has the European carrier exclusive on sales of the Small, Cheap(ish) Computer with a built-in HSDPA modem. That's an accessory notably absent from Dell's own website …
• Chrome: A new force for web applications? — The Register
  Review Promise through the froth
  Google's new web browser has provoked an orgy of comment almost rivalling that for a new trinket from Apple. There's plenty of froth, but for once the interest is justified. This is not just a browser: it is a vehicle for delivering web applications, and it significantly changes the balance of power between those trying to …
• History shaped Google's Trojan Horse — The Register
  Analysis Unravelling the Chrome masterplan... with Windows 2.03
  When people buy software - buy it in seriously large amounts - it isn't just today's binary they're choosing. They're buying what they think is a bit of the future - they're buying a piece of risk insurance. This explains why very mature and well-proven systems often lose out to the Newest Kid on the Block. It also explains the …
• AMD to launch 45nm quad-core Phenoms on 8 January 2009 — Reg Hardware
  125W 'Deneb' to make a splash at CES?
  What desktop processors are AMD planning to release during the final three months of the year? A leaked roadmap slide reveals all. And its first 'Deneb' desktops will debut in January 2009. The slide, sent to Spanish-language site ChileHardware, highlights 8 October as the next entry on AMD's calendar. On that day it'll launch …
• Phone phishers hop on filesharing legal threats bandwagon — The Register
  Didn't see that coming... oh
  Fraudsters have begun cold-calling householders to accuse them of copyright infringement online and threaten them with court action, an ISP has reported. The development comes soon after the law firm Davenport Lyons won a widely-reported £16,000 default court award for a videogames firm from an alleged filesharer. Davenport …
• MS doesn't set world alight with Office Live Workspace — The Register
  Move along please, nothing to see here
  Microsoft claimed yesterday that one million subscribers have now signed up to the beta release of Office Live Workspace. The company’s web-based suite of apps has been publicly available for six months. They allow customers to create or edit documents online, but this being Redmond, there is a caveat: a licensed copy of MS …
• UK's top boffin: Renewables targets were 'a mistake' — The Register
  EU premiers were in the dark: now we all will be
  A former chief scientific advisor to the government has said that EU renewable-energy quotas will cause widespread fuel poverty. Sir David King believes that European heads of state, in agreeing the targets, may have mistaken electricity usage for total energy consumption - leading to overly ambitious and expensive goals being …
• Hi-tech cops lose their website — The Register
  Forget to re-register did we?
  The lapsed website of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has been snapped up by an opportunistic German marketeer. Up until recently nhtcu.org redirected to the official website of Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). SOCA was created in April 2006 with the merger of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal …
• Sony recalls burning US laptops — Channel Register
  Vaio short circuit danger
  Sony is recalling 73,000* Vaio TZ-series laptops sold in the US, as a possible short circuit of wires near the hinge could burn users. *The BBC reports 440,000 machines in the US and Japan are affected by the recall, but none in the UK. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is working with Sony to get the machines back. …
• Phorm: Our business is fine, honest — The Register
  UK.gov promises legal explanation for secret trials this month
  After its share price slumped to a new low, Phorm today sought to allay investor fears about the ISP-level adware business by repeating assurances that a critical third trial with BT will go ahead. Yesterday Phorm closed at £5.80, an all time low. The announcement seems to be having the desired effect; at time of writing Phorm …
• Holiday text messages to cost less than 9p — The Register
  Text and data caps detailed
  Viviane Reding has begun circulating details of her proposed caps on data and SMS roaming. She wants to see prices capped at €.11 for a text message and €1 a MB for roamed data. The draft text has been sent to the EU Commissioners for consideration ahead of a formal vote on the matter in October. It also includes a proposal to …
• Intel P45 desktop chipset — Reg Hardware
  Review Makes life more difficult for overclockers
  The P45 Express is Intel’s latest mainstream chipset for the Core 2 range of processors. In many respects, it's a refinement of the P35. However, it has developed in an interesting direction. We generally expect that a new Intel chipset will major on CPU and memory support, but Intel has already got that side of things covered …
• Lockheed demos AI-based roboforce command tech — The Register
  'Intelligent agents' control droid legions: flee now
  US aerospace colossus Lockheed Martin says it has taken an important step towards the inevitable rebellion of heavily armed, highly intelligent slaughter machines bent on the elimination of humanity. (We're paraphrasing the company release, obviously.) The arms globocorp announced yesterday that it had "demonstrated …
• LG launches 8Mp full-of-firsts cameraphone — Reg Hardware
  Divx, GPS, kitchen sink included
  LG has taken the wraps off its superlative-laden eight-megapixel cameraphone, which it'll bring to Blighty next month. The LG-KC910 is not only the slimmest 8Mp cameraphone on the market, LG claimed, but it's also the first to sport a touchscreen interface. It's also the first with Dolby Mobile sound tech, the Korean company …
• Secure Computing snaps up user control firm Securify — The Register
  Pimp My Firewall
  Security appliance firm Secure Computing has bought user access monitoring and control firm Securify, in a deal valued at up to $20m ($15m guaranteed in cash and stock, plus an earn-out of up to $5m). Securify's appliance-based technology allows organisations to control and keep tabs on user access to applications. The …
• AMD to spin off fabs, claims analyst — Reg Hardware
  Chip maker to remodel itself on Nvidia et al?
  Is AMD about to announce that it's going to reinvent itself as a fabless semiconductor company? That's certainly what one analyst thinks. John Lau, an analyst with investment hous Jefferies & Co. this week told his clients that moles have told him AMD has such a strategy in mind and might announce the plan as early as mid- …
• Rooster Cogballmer — The Register
  Microsoft virtualization splash on Monday?
  Remember Rooster Cogburn, that aggressive old man with one last stand left in him? Word is that Microsoft will make a splash on Monday around Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager with a host of supporting supplier statements. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pictured as Rooster Cogburn Anyway, it got me thinking …
• Dell launches Inspiron 9 mini laptop — Reg Hardware
  But no Linux version for now
  Dell has launched the Inspiron Mini 9, as expected. Alas, it's not as cheap as previous rumours suggested. The 1.04kg Mini 9 sports the 8.9in, 1024 x 600 display; 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor; 1GB of DDR 2 memory; Intel 945 chipset with GMA 950 graphics; trio of USB ports; VGA out; 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; Ethernet; and 1.3- …
• Kids may benefit from mobiles in class — The Register
  Smartphones bring smarts
  A study from Nottingham University found that kids can actually benefit from using mobile phones in class. Teachers and parents have often complained about mobile use, and been tricked by kids using ringtones that adults can't hear, but a nine month study at five secondary schools found that phones can be a useful learning aid …
• Scottish beavers (and Cali cacti) get their chips — The Register
  The fluffier face of tracking
  As a report from the US Computing Technology Industry Association shows the number of companies adopting chipping for one or more projects up by a third on 2007, it is nice to think that just occasionally, chips and other tracking devices can be put to uses that are relatively benign – or even green. September is likely to …
• Google restores Chrome's shine — The Register
  Polishes up its EULA
  Google has acted with speed and retracted the objectional sentences in Chrome's EULA, so that any content you post via Chrome is yours and yours alone. The ruckus was caused by our old friends, the paralegal firm Cut 'n' Paste Inc. Their employment has now been terminated and a new contract arranged with Fink First, Cut 'n' …
• Amazon to sell one OLPC laptop for the price of two — Reg Hardware
  Retail giant takes on charity notebook
  Amazon will soon sell the OLPC Linux laptop using the approach taken by the hardware charity's 'buy two, get one' programme. So said OLPC EMEA chief Matt Keller, in an interview with IDG. Keller said Amazon will add the XO notebook to its product list late in November, though it seems a limited run that extends only to the …
• Oracle's Ellison spanked for withholding evidence in shareholder suit — The Register
  The missing Softwar tapes
  A federal judge has upbraided Oracle CEO Larry Ellison for withholding evidence in a class-action suit brought by company stockholders. Yesterday, Bloomberg reports, US District Court Judge Susan Illston ruled that Ellison failed to preserve or intentionally destroyed emails and audio recordings that should have been turned …
• Microsoft slashes US Xbox 360 to sub-Wii price — Reg Hardware
  The $200 Arcade
  Microsoft will slice the price of the Xbox 360 in the US this Friday, making an entry-level version of its game console less expensive than a Nintendo Wii. Microsoft confirmed today the Arcade model will retail for $200 beginning 5 September, which is down from its previous price of $280. The standard model will cost $300, …
• 3,400 votes vanish from Florida election — The Register
  Son of Hanging Chad
  Florida elections officials are determining whether they can give their counterparts in Palm Beach County more time to certify voting results of an election last week, following the revelation that more than 3,400 ballots have vanished into thin air. Arthur Anderson, Palm Beach's supervisor of Elections certified the results …

Wednesday, 03 September 2008

• Anonymous domain registration nixed amid fraud complaints — The Register
  Directi strikes back
  A company that provides a controversial service to domain name registrars says it is severing ties with Estdomains amid complaints that the Eastern European company makes it too easy to register sites that are used by spammers and scammers. Directi, through a subsidiary called LogicBoxes, had been providing an array of …
• Emails allege ATI-Nvidia price fixing conspiracy — Channel Register
  'A jury would like to see this'
  New details have been released on the evidence backing a civil lawsuit against Nvidia and ATI (now owned by AMD) - evidence that allegedly indicates the two companies participated in a graphics card price fixing cartel. In June 2007, at least 51 separate complaints were lumped together and amended into a single class action …
• Homeland Security backs deportation with Wikipedia — The Register
  Immigration Judge approves
  The Department of Homeland Security has attempted to justify the deportation of an asylum seeker using an entry to Wikipedia. This convinced a US Immigration Judge. But thankfully, there are clearer thinkers in other parts of the American government. Last week, a federal court of appeals finally ruled that using Wikipedia to …
• HP launches virtualization armada — The Register
  Server, storage, desktops, research, ho!
  Hewlett-Packard is launching a fleet of virtualization products today, including four new thin-client PCs, a StorageWorks virtualization blade, an enterprise storage package, updates to HP-UX, and plenty of service offerings. Plus, the hardware vendor is backing this virtualization push with some research. A recent survey …
• Oracle buys ClearApp — The Register
  See-through acquisition
  Oracle has bought SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) business software maker ClearApp for an undisclosed sum. Redwood City, California-based Oracle announced the deal yesterday. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of this year. Oracle plans to fold ClearApp’s web-based software into its Enterprise Manager …
• Reg launches Chrome-o-drome — The Register
  Round-up It wasn't built in a day...
  It's got to be the most exciting event in science since Thomas Edison electrocuted elephants in order to try and discredit Nikola Tesla! It's like finding a Cornish-speaking Flores Hobbit nurturing a Higgs Boson particle behind an invisible garden shed! It's [get on with it - Ed]... Yes, it's Chrome, the browser by Google, and …
• Mythbusters RFID episode axed after 'pressure' from credit card firms — The Register
  Bust this
  Update: Since we published this story MythBusters host Adam Savage has backtracked on claims that Discovery Channel caved into commercial pressure in canceling a planned show on RFID technology. See new story here. Discovery Channel prevented the exploration of RFID security by Mythbusters, the popular science television show, …
• Sun splits DARPA photon-linkage cake with Kotura — The Register
  Chip-to-chip fatness sought
  Kotura Inc announced today it has been awarded a $14m contract by Sun Microsystems, to assist with photonic linking of processor cores in future supercomputers and power-limited multicore systems. Sun is carrying out the optical core-hookup work for the US military. The idea of linking processors optically rather than …
• Thailand clamps down on rude websites — The Register
  You'd think they have bigger problems
  Thai authorities have reportedly moved to shut down hundreds of websites they view as a threat to national security, amid ongoing civil unrest in Bangkok. Court orders have been issued against 400 websites, 344 of which have been deemed insulting to the Thai royal family, The Bangkok Post reports. Two others displayed " …
• Grid computer recreates ancient Greek lute — The Register
  Geeks go Greek
  Researchers have harnessed the awesome power of grid computing to answer one of the great mysteries facing mankind: what exactly does an epigonion sound like? At the risk of stating the obvious, an epigonion is a stringed instrument plucked by the ancient Greeks, and there aren't many around these days. To recreate the sound, …
• Linux desktop freaks out Ubuntu man — The Register
  Shuttleworth speaks
  Not many things make the founder of the Ubuntu distro Mark Shuttleworth nervous, but recommending people replace Windows with Linux on their desktop, it seems, is one of them. This coming from someone who's been catapulted out of our atmosphere to spend time in the freezing vacuum of space. Shuttleworth, though, reckons …
• Mozilla claims mass Ubiquity mobilisation — The Register
  Retro geek hog heaven
  Firefox developer Mozilla has claimed its decision to reinvent the command line to make mashups easier has received an overwhelming response from developers. Mozilla Labs last week released an experimental plug-in called Ubiquity, which lets users call up a command line entry box and type in commands to carry out additional …
• Opera boss: Imitation is flattering — The Register
  But Chrome code isn't worth a look
  Google's new Chrome browser borrows so much from Opera's browser, we had to ask Jon von Tetzchner, Opera's CEO, an obvious question today - had Google hired any of his staff? "No." He didn't sound too upset, though, that Google has half-inched so many features from Opera in a smash-and-grab raid. "Some things we recognise …
• Burned by Chrome - Fire put out — The Register
  Your copyright does not now go up in smoke
  Update - Google amends Chrome EULA (Updated 4 Sep '08 0830 GMT) Google has amended section 11.1 of the Chrome EULA so that it now reads: 11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. There are now no other sub-sections in section 11 …
• PNY calls Ghostbusters to boost 2GB Flash drive sales — Reg Hardware
  Updated
  In a bid to sell more cheap USB Flash drives, Memory maker PNY is to flog a special edition 2GB stick with a copy of Ghostbusters on it. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! The movie will be 25 years old next year, leaving PNY's release mis-timed to the tune of nine months if you work on from …
• UN email hacker jailed — The Register
  Blackmail backfire
  A worker who hacked into his UN diplomat boss's email account has been jailed for three months. The 24-year-old Egyptian was jailed in Abu Dhabi after he was convicted of breaking into a personal email account set up by a UN worker from the UAE and threatening to expose her sensitive private information, ArabianBusiness.com …
• Sainsbury's and HP buddy up on recycling jamboree — Channel Register
  Drop off unwanted gear, buy loaf of bread
  HP and supermarket giant Sainsbury’s are asking Londoners to recycle IT kit they no longer use. Both firms want people to bring neglected desktops, laptops, fax machines, scanners and printers to Sainsbury’s Nine Elms store in Vauxhall, London this Saturday (6 September) between 11am and 4pm for recycling purposes. HP said it …
• Nokia starts to ship N96 — Reg Hardware
  In the shops shortly
  Nokia may have said in the past that its N96 flagship multimedia phone would arrive here in October, but it announced today that the N95 follow-up has begun shipping. Nokia's N96: N95 successor leaving the factory as we speak There's no contradiction. Shipping from Nokia's assembly plants and arriving on shop shelves isn't …
• Medion launches mini laptop in UK — Reg Hardware
  Medion has formally launched its entry into the Small, Cheap Computer arena: the MSI Wind-based Akoya Mini E1210. The Akoya sports a 10in, 1024 x 600 display driven by the mini laptop's chipset-integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics core. Intel supplies the CPU too: the standard 1.6GHz Atom N270. It's backed up by 1GB of DDR 2 …
• Chinese boffins crack invisible-shed window problem — The Register
  Unscrewing the inscrutable
  Everyone, one hopes, is well aware by now of metamaterial - remarkable conceptual stuff which might be used in coming years to make invisibility cloaks; or more realistically, invisible sheds. Few, however, have spotted the critical flaw in a metamaterial cloak, shed or cladding - people so concealed would no more be able to see …
• Dell Inspiron 910 mini-laptop to be a hardware hacker's dream? — Reg Hardware
  Set to launch tomorrow, says mole
  Is Dell going to launch its Small, Cheap Computer, the Inspiron 910, tomorrow? That's certainly what one newspaper is claiming today, and there's evidence to back up that claim. According to the Wall Street Journal, someone who knows what the PC giant's planning claimed the mini Inspiron will be announced on Thursday. Inside …
• eMusic rattles ISPs over legal downloads — The Register
  Pakman eats dots, avoids ghosts
  The boss of Apple’s iTunes nearest rival eMusic has warned that recent deals struck between the music industry and UK internet providers could threaten the existence of legal sites. eMusic CEO David Pakman told the Financial Times that ISPs could lure customers away from well-known digital music sites by offering their own …
• Getac B300 rugged laptop — Reg Hardware
  Review No mucking about with this hard-boiled hardware
  This laptop is squarely aimed at those who find themselves biding their time waiting for a Sahara sandstorm to pass, or need to check email while hanging upside down from an offshore oil rig. The first impression is that this thing looks like it should come with handcuffs, like one of those top secret briefcases only seen in …
• Government kids database under fire, again — The Register
  It'll be over by Christmas
  The Government’s ContactPoint database - designed to keep tabs on children at risk of social exclusion - is in trouble again, coming under fire on two separate fronts. First is the vexed issue of “shielding”, identified as a source of concern by a recent article in the Guardian. More directly, the chairman of the Foundation …
• Carpetbomb bug tarnishes Google Chrome — The Register
  Shiny new vulnerabilities winkled out already
  Google Chrome isn't officially out yet, but security researchers have already picked the browser apart to discover a security vulnerability. The WebKit engine used inside Chrome leaves it vulnerable to the infamous Safari carpetbombing flaw, security researcher Aviv Raff warns. The flaw stems from a combination of a …
• Clever, clever Adaptec — The Register
  A RAID controller can do power management as well
  Wrapping a green cloak around its shoulders Adaptec has impressively extended its RAID controllers' capabilities by making them spin down disk drives as well. It's also joined the Green Grid, the IT industry's data centre greening group. All Adaptec Series 2 and 5 RAID controllers can now send messages to disk drives telling …
• Google's Austro-Hungarian ambitions laid bare — The Register
  Chrome recruits Maximilian von Hapsburg
  Our shock revelation yesterday that Google had redrawn the map of Europe to apparently cede several European nations to a Greater Germany provoked a flurry of comments suggesting what on God's Green Earth the search monolith was up to: The consensus was that Google had in fact created a Danish superstate, described by Jolyon …
• Is there a networkable Freeview box? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  I’m trying to find a Freeview box with a hard drive so that I can record TV, but I also want to connect it to my home network so that I can view recorded TV on a PC. Any suggestions? I’ve been looking at the Evesham iPlayer reviews and that looks pretty close to what I want, only they don’t appear to make it any more. Is there …
• NebuAd CEO quits — The Register
  Captain declines to go down with ship
  The founder of NebuAd, the company best described as the US version of Phorm, has quit as its CEO. With a Valley background at stalwarts such as Juniper Networks and Symantec, Bob Dykes was seen as lending the firm industry credibility. Public resistance and regulatory scrutiny in the US and UK have now put the future of the …
• Northrop in electric blaster cannon milestone — The Register
  Weapons grade fry-ray to debut 'this year'
  US war-tech behemoth Northrop Grumman announced yesterday that it had achieved another milestone in its battlefield raygun programme - ahead of schedule. Company blaster cannon execs believe that the first tests at combat power - 100 kilowatts - will take place as planned by the end of this year. Eight of these, and it's time …
• Buffalo touts 'first' external SSD — Reg Hardware
  Not cheap
  Buffalo has released what it claims is the country's first external solid-state drive. Buffalo's MicroStation: compact The MicroStation line has a maximum 100GB raw storage capacity - 32GB and 64GB versions are also available - that connects using a USB 2.0 which wraps round the drive. Wrap-around USB cable The drive's …
• Lenovo offers online backup deal — Reg Hardware
  Save it to the cloud...
  Lenovo is making EMC’s Mozy backup-to-the-cloud service available to ThinkPad SL buyers with a trial offer of unlimited online backup for $49. The deal is only available in a few countries: Ireland, UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, USA and Canada. But the service will soon be offered on a …
• Sony e-book reader to debut in UK tomorrow — Reg Hardware
  To begin at the beginning...
  Sony's PRS-505 Reader goes on sale in the UK tomorrow and will "revolutionise reading", the company ebulliently claimed today. "What the Walkman did for music on the move, the Reader is about to do for books," the firm's spokesfolks enthused. Maybe. Sony reckons the 260g gadget based on E Ink screen technology will prove a …
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 to land next month — Reg Hardware
  Firm's first Windows Mobile phone release announced
  Sony Ericsson has overcome most of the problems it encountered attempting to run Windows Mobile 6.1 on its upcoming Xperia X1 handset and has set a firm release date for the phone. Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1: coming to the UK next month At a London press conference yesterday, an SE spokesman told Register Hardware that the …
• Dixons Group still suffering — Channel Register
  Firm has much to be cautious about
  Dixons Store Group International shares fell another five per cent this morning after the company reported poor results for the three months ended 23 August 2008. DSGI shares were trading at 50.5p, down from a year high of 160p. The interim report revealed like-for-like sales were down seven per cent and gross margins down 0. …
• McKinnon a 'scapegoat for Pentagon insecurity' — The Register
  US mil still wide open to attack, says reformed hacker
  As accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon hopes against hope to avoid being extradited to the US, another reformed military systems meddler considers his own case - and how different the outcome was. McKinnon is probably days away from extradition. Only a last minute plea to the Home Secretary "Wacky" Jacqui Smith - based on …
• Big demand for pay by phone tech, claims Nokia — The Register
  The sole manufacturer of NFC handsets
  Nokia is championing the success of its UK NFC trial, claiming that almost 80 per cent of users want contactless payment systems on their mobile phone - a happy coincidence for Nokia, since no one else is making NFC handsets as yet. The trial - the largest in Europe - saw 500 punters equipped with NFC-capable handsets loaded …
• Reding tells Euro MPs to back telecoms reforms — The Register
  Lady's not for turning
  Telcoms commissioner Viviane Reding has told the European Parliament to back proposed changes to telecoms regulation across Europe. The speech called for quicker data portability, compulsory data breach laws if private information is lost, more transparent pricing structures to make life easier for consumers, and more wireless …
• ICANN cast as online scam enabler — The Register
  And now a word for our illegal online pharmacy sponsor
  Note: Officials at LogicBoxes and Directi take strong exception to the reports discussed in this story. Their objections are detailed in this follow-up story. Two recently issued reports portray the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a bureaucracy that enables cyber criminals. In one report (PDF), …

Tuesday, 02 September 2008

• IBM pitches 'network security' blade server — The Register
  Slimline P2P throttler
  IBM is rolling out a blade server made to support deep packet inspection tools, so that service providers and other operations can better shield themselves against viruses, denial of service attacks, and, yes, throttle peer-to-peer bandwidth. The BladeCenter PN41 was co-developed by IBM and the service management and security …
• Google remodels top secret money machine — The Register
  'Perfect ad' be damned
  Nowadays, even Google is questioning Google's rose-colored portrait of its ever-expanding search advertising monopoly. The way senior vp Jonathan Rosenberg tells it, Google will gradually tweak its AdWords ad platform until it displays almost no ads. Ad "coverage" on the world's largest search engine has certainly shrunk over …
• Google's comic capers: what they really meant to say — The Register
  The truth behind the speech bubbles
  Google publicised its new browser Chrome with a 38-page comic book. It's a gift to satirists, and already, our inboxes are buzzing with slightly less saintly interpretations. Here's a selection. Naturally, the altruistic nature of the operation gets a bit of a bashing: As does the, er, "end to end" nature of the …
• Skype ignores PayPal siphoning hijack scheme — The Register
  The phone company without a phone
  One day last month, when Klaus Zimmerman tried to log into his Skype account, he got an error message indicating his username and password didn't match. Concerned something was awry, Zimmerman, a computer repairman living in Wexford County, Ireland, phoned his brother and asked him to check his online status. "I saw you on …
• VMware R&D chief goes home again — The Register
  Back to Oracle after 9 months
  After only nine months on the job, VMware's head of research and development is packing his bags and returning to Oracle. Richard Sarwal resigned his post effective immediately in order to resume his life at Oracle, where he spent almost two decades. Sarwal was plucked from the database outfit by VMWare's former-CEO, Diane …
• Intel adds cheap dual-core, quad-core chips — Reg Hardware
  New life for the Celeron D
  Intel has quietly updated its processor price list over the weekend, making a 45nm addition to its economy quad-cores, a new entry-level dual-core chip, and an upgrade to the Celeron D family. The tried-and-true Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor now has a similarly cheap alternative from Intel that's based on a 45nm fab. The new …
• Discover OS X's hidden artistic side — The Register
  Mac secrets Jobs' past revisited
  One of the most frequently used Cocoa classes is NSImage which, as the name suggests, is all about displaying and manipulating image data. The imageNamed: method of this class retrieves an image reference for you - provided that you know the name of the image you're after. Many of the images that can be retrieved via the …
• Is the copper in my patch leads worth anything? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  I'm due to replace a load of patch leads in my server room. With copper prices the way they are, and people stealing signal cable from the railways etc., is there any value in these that can be recovered? What is the least troublesome - and legal - way to go about it if there is?
• Sony pairs PS3 with Bluetooth headset — Reg Hardware
  Online gaming chats are go
  PlayStation 3 gaming looks set to become yet more immersive, because Sony has launched a Bluetooth headset for the console. Sony's PS3 headset, with docking station The CEJH-15002 looks like most mobile phone Bluetooth headsets, with a hook for fixing the wireless communicator around your ear. However, the PS3-branded …
• Google cedes Belgium to Germany — The Register
  Chrome redraws the map of Europe
  We've got some rather shocking news this afternoon for those of you who've spent years believing you're Austrian, Belgian, Danish or Dutch - you're not. In fact, you're German, as this map from Google's comic book guide to Chrome proves: Yes indeed, see page 13 for evidence of your "reallocation" to a Greater Germany. As an …
• Sony Ericsson Walkman W980 music phone — Reg Hardware
  Review Too few non-music features
  The extensive Walkman phone line-up now has a new flagship: the W980, a glossily stylish clamshell that features 8GB of built-in storage among its spread of music-centric features. Unlike Sony Ericsson’s previous 8GB-packing Walkman W960i effort, the W980 doesn’t bring touchscreen smartphone functionality into play. Instead, …
• Boffins produce aerobatic copycat-copter pilotware — The Register
  Computer see, computer do
  Researchers at Stanford University have developed technology which lets computers handling remote-control helicopters achieve complex manoeuvres by copying a human pilot. Having "seen" a move carried out successfully once, the pilot-ware can then repeat it more consistently than the human. Stanford grad students led by …
• Women turn on to a throbbing Maserati — The Register
  'Primeval physiological response' to luxury motors
  It's official: If you want to turn a woman on, ditch the Volkswagen Polo and get yourself a Maserati, which is 100 per cent guaranteed to get those vital testosterone secretions flowing. That's according to research by psychologist David Moxon, who subjected 40 guinea pigs to recordings of the aforementioned cars' throbbing …
• Furniture firm offers seat formed from old PS2s — Reg Hardware
  Gaming goes green
  Swanky suburban store Selfridges is to sell a chair made from recycled PlayStation 2 games consoles. Have you seen my PS2 anywhere? The Reee chair’s back and seat are made from the plastic casings of nine PS2s, which maker Pli Design stated saves 2.4kg of “post-consumer” plastic from ending up in landfill. Whether the firm …
• Why the US faces broadband price hikes — The Register
  Comment Thanks, FCC
  Peer-to-peer file sharing just got a lot more expensive in the US. The FCC has ordered Comcast to refrain from capping P2P traffic, endorsing a volume-based pricing scheme that would “charge the most aggressive users overage fees” instead. BitTorrent, Inc. reacted to the ruling by laying-off 15 per cent of its workforce, while …
• Judge slaps Fasthosts for rubbish kit and support — The Register
  Damages and costs for all-round uselessness
  A county court judge has awarded a disgruntled Fasthosts customer almost £1,500 in damages and costs, after the Gloucester firm failed to meet its uptime and customer service guarantees. Hampshire consultancy UK Mobile Media was prompted to take Fasthosts to Southampton small claims court yesterday by a four month period that …
• Zombie network explosion — The Register
  Long shadow cast by SQL injection surge?
  The number of compromised zombie PCs in botnet networks has quadrupled over the last three months, according to figures from the Shadowserver Foundation. Shadowserver tracks botnet activity and the number of command and control servers. It uses a variety of metrics to slice and dice its figures based in part on the entropy of …
• Commodore launches little laptop — Reg Hardware
  Am-eee-ga
  The famous Commodore brand is to be attached to the lid of a Small, Cheap Computer. Commodore's netbook: peek and poke Images courtesy NRK Beta The UMMD 8010/F will be based on VIA's C7-M processor rather than an Intel Atom, but its other specs are classic SCC. The unit will have a 10in screen, 1GB of memory and an 80GB …
• GNU turns 25 — The Register
  Happy birthday, software libre
  No longer will the Free Software Foundation be the target of advertisements for novelty condoms, Ibiza package holidays and extreme sports gear. It's leaving the 16-24 yoof demographic behind. Today the GNU project celebrates its quarter-century. It was on 27 September 1983 that MIT slacker Richard M Stallman made his …
• Scotland's oldest newspaper exposes readers' smalls in public — The Register
  Updated URL manipulation snafu gives access to other users
  Scottish newspaper The Aberdeen Press and Journal inadvertently made it easy to harvest sensitive information about registered users from its site as a result of a basic information security mistake. Registered users are presented with stories an a URL along the lines of http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/815191? …
• Microsoft eyes mobile app store — The Register
  Skymarket to challenge iTunes?
  Microsoft is looking like it may launch an application repository in response to the success of Apple's iTunes application store and Google's announcement that Android will be similarly endowed. Or is it? Recent job adverts, grabbed by i started something, are for a Product Manager and Senior Product Manager and describe …
• Add-on to turn iPhone into games console — Reg Hardware
  Kind of
  A picture has emerged of what's claimed to be a Belkin clip-on gaming case for the iPhone that, if legit, gives the handset more of a PlayStation Portable look'n'feel. Is the Joypod Belkin's attempt at cracking into iPhone gaming? Pic courtesy Touch Arcade Actually, it looks rather like the ill-fated Gizmondo gaming …
• Nokia pitches 'free music with old phone' offer — Reg Hardware
  Comes With Music comes with old 5310
  Nokia has said its Comes With Music free song download service is coming to the UK. The only snag: you’ll have to buy a phone that’s more than 12 months old. Nokia's 'new' 5310 gives free music downloads You'll also have to buy it through Carphone Warehouse, which has exclusive sales rights. Comes With Music, as previously …
• 3PAR thins storage arrays — The Register
  Revs its ASIC to slim down fat volumes
  Today 3PAR is doing its bit to solve the storage obesity problem with new T-class InServ storage servers featuring a third-generation ASIC and hardware-assisted fat-to-thin volume transformation. Currently 3PAR offers two S-class storage servers, the S400 scaling to 300TB with Fibre Channel SATA drives and S800 scaling to …
• Aussie Customs in presentational-aid crackdown — The Register
  Prang peril pointers fingered
  Australian customs officials have made their first seizure of possibly-deadly "high intensity" laser pointers under newly introduced federal regulations. Some 1,200 of the fearful photon weapons were intercepted in the crackdown. "Unfortunately for a lot of people, the message is still failing to get through," said Oz Home …
• Ex-BT boss off to Alcatel-Lucent — The Register
  Turnaround kid
  Ben Verwaayen, who spent six years as CEO of BT, is joining Alcatel-Lucent as chief executive. Verwaayen will work with Philippe Camus, who starts as Chairman on 1 October. He was credited with helping BT's apparent turnaround, moving from a voice to broadband provider and cutting jobs in the process. Alcatel-Lucent's …
• Owner alleges iPhone 3G became red hot — Reg Hardware
  iToast?
  A German Swiss man has alleged his recently purchased iPhone 3G mysteriously overheated, almost to the point of catching fire, he said. After an unsuccessful attempt to sync the three-week-old handset with his PC, the fellow discovered the device to have become very hot, he told Swiss German-language site 20 Minutes. So hot, …
• Arrest made over data-stuffed eBay laptop hard drive — The Register
  Plods attempt to plug data leak
  Police have made an arrest in connection with last week's eBay sale of a computer hard drive containing personal data. The latest information security lapse has happened in Charnwood in Leicestershire, where taxpayers' personal details were found on a computer which was sold for £6.99. The details are said to include bank …
• Fujitsu wants NHS exit payment — The Register
  Wants NHS to pony up millions for unfinished job
  Fujitsu Services has submitted a claim for payment to the NHS, following its sacking in May from the National Programme for IT. A spokesperson for the firm refused to confirm or deny a claim in the Independent that the vendor is asking for £700m of the £896m it was due to have been paid if the ten year contract had been …
• Last days of Symbian - business ticking over — The Register
  Finland shores up freebie shortfall
  Symbian has published its unaudited results for the first half of 2008, the last time the company will be doing so before it becomes part of the Nokia empire later this year. They show things are slightly slower than this time last year, but overall doing fine. A company whose primary product is about to be turned into a …
• Road warriors offered office in a suitcase — Reg Hardware
  Crazy case contains printer, laptop stand, power
  Travelling salespeople have a hard time, often working from their car, without enough space for laptop, let alone use of a printer. But now all their problems have been solved - with one suitcase. The case fits onto a car seat (left) and opens (right) to reveal a laptop holder arm Forget living out of a suitcase, because …
• Mimosa adds files to archive cocktail — The Register
  Archive's dusty old barn is shaken to foundations
  Mimosa, an email archiving software company, is adding file archiving to its NearPoint product, this way striking out on a unified archiving strategy. Once upon a time data protection meant backup to tape. Those simple times seem a long time ago now, with tape backup's front-end restore role and back-end archive role both …
• The Google-isation of all the net's access points — The Register
  Chrome Sweet Chrome
  Google is creating its own open source Chrome browser and so spreading its influence over access points to its core search, mail, docs, photo-sharing and other services. An early - maybe too early - release of a (no really) comic book-style description of Chrome can be found here. The giant, brimming with optimism, megadollars …
• Google releases open source browser — The Register
  Not an April Fool this time
  Google is releasing an open source browser called Google Chrome which it promises will be small, fast and stable. Available for download shortly, the tabbed browser is explained in a 38 page comic by Scott McCloud. The comic explains that browsers are now very different from when first introduced - they are used for running …
• UK punters scowl at webmail ad targeting — The Register
  Hands off our inboxes
  Two in five Brits are worried that free webmail comes at the expense of privacy because firms are scanning their messages in order to serve up targeted ads. A similar 40 per cent of 1,800 Brits polled in a survey by alternative freemail firm GMX were unaware of the practice. One third of Brits quizzed during GMX's Attitudes to …

Monday, 01 September 2008

• Ambulance-chasing Graun goes after Gustav — The Register
  Bringing Fuzziness to the Believers
  Spare a thought for anyone on the Environment beat at the Guardian newspaper. It must be like working for Pravda during the Breznhev era. There, as the economy became ever more dysfunctional, reporters were obliged to pump out ever more absurd stories saluting record productivity and efficiency records. The triumph over …
• VPN security - if you want it, come and get it — The Register
  Attention WiFi hotspotters: You want it
  If you value your privacy and use Wi-Fi hotspots or other public networks, there is no tool more indispensable than a virtual private network. Yes, technologies such as secure sockets layer (denoted by an "https" in a web address) will prevent information transmitted between a PC and a web or email server from being intercepted …
• Designer moots Zune-friendly wireless speaker — Reg Hardware
  Also acts as nightlight
  Zune ownership is still a dream for many European music fans. But one designer’s dreamt up a concept wireless speaker for the player, that’ll also scare away any monsters lurking under your child’s bed. Zune Bug: a concept wireless speaker for Zune players Designer Ashley Payne has no official affiliation with Microsoft’s …
• Immersion shakes out $20m for MS legal win — Reg Hardware
  Will share its toys with Microsoft?
  Microsoft will soon have an extra $20m in the bank and new business partner now that it's settled a long running legal spat with vibration-feedback firm Immersion. Under the terms of the deal, Immersion will pay Microsoft $20.7m (£11.5m/€14.2m) and enter into Microsoft's Certified Partner Program. It’s rumoured this could see …
• Apple, O2 to release PAYG iPhones this month — Reg Hardware
  Pre-pay details announced
  O2 will release the iPhone 3G on a pay-as-you-go tariff on 16 September, the carrier has just announced. The 8GB version of the phone will cost £350 - just £50 less than the 16GB model. It'll be sold by O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple. O2 said that the purchase price includes a year's unlimited browsing - an "excessive usage …
• iGoogle personalises personal pages on other people's behalf — The Register
  Erm, doesn't that kind of defeat the iPoint?
  Google has angered some of its personalised homepage users by running tests of an apparently unpopular experimental layout, and refusing to let them opt out or tell them how long the tests will last. The firm announced the trials on its "Personalising Google" group pages on 8 July. To date, there are 579 overwhelmingly …
• Concrete-jet 'printers' to build houses, Moonbases in hours — The Register
  Man, this refill cartridge weighs a ton
  Most readers will be aware of so-called "3D printing" techniques, in which solid objects can be constructed automatically from computer models. Researchers in California intend to scale the process up radically, using "contour crafting" concrete extrusion to erect buildings in a matter of hours. "Instead of plastic, Contour …
• Virtualized PCIe switch — The Register
  NextIO revs products
  Virtualized PCIe technology start-up NextIO has rev'ed and re-marketed products which were first announced in May. It announced its ioGateway family of ExpressConnect products, the N1400-PCM IBM blade server module and N2800-ICA back in May and has now anounced its Adaptive Connect products, comprising the, yes, you got it, …
• Sony's Rolly mobile music player rolls into Britain — Reg Hardware
  Pre-orders being taken
  Sony’s egg-shaped futuristic self-propelling portable music player will finally roll into UK shops next month, just over one year after it first cracked its way into the gadget scene. Rolly - your musical performance pal The firm’s UK sales website now carries the message that Blighty’s consumers can pre-order the palm- …
• Oz cops call up phone records after car smashes — Reg Hardware
  Australian cops have confirmed they examine the mobile phone call activity of drivers involved in killer car crashes. New South Wales traffic police this week told Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper that they have nabbed 1300 more motorists for using a handset while driving during the first six months of 2008 than they did …
• Welder in DIY penis enhancement nut mishap — The Register
  Pre-engagement tumescence requires Singapore sling
  A Malaysian welder who tried to lengthen his penis by fitting a nut to it had to have skin removed and blood drained before doctors could remove the offending add-on. Local news organ The Star reports that the unfortunate 20-year-old tradesman was hoping to impress ahead of his engagement this week. The welder, who works in …
• PC Gamers get Bill of Rights — Reg Hardware
  An amendment too far?
  A special Bill of Rights has been created in an attempt to secure every PC gamer's ten most fundamental privileges. The Gamer's Bill of Rights: don't expect it to become law any time soon The bill was created by desktop utility software developer Stardock and games designer Gas Powered Games. It's basically a list of the …
• Shine on Silverlight and Windows with XAML — The Register
  Web bling tone Learn now, pays later
  Extensible Application Markup Language, or XAML, lies at the heart of Microsoft's rich-client strategy. The user interface for both Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight, which is mostly a subset of WPF, is typically defined in XAML. It is, therefore, something Windows developers will have to get to grips with …
• Euro consumers to get 'Made for iPod'...refrigerator — Reg Hardware
  Dock n' eat
  Fridges aren’t something Register Hardware usually writes about. But then we’ve never come across one that features a 'Made for iPod' logo before. Gorenje's iPod Touch fridge The fridge is manufactured by long-established Slovenian white-goods maker Gorenje and officially licensed by Apple. The cooler has an iPod Touch …
• Intel buys up UK Linux lab — The Register
  A bird in the OpenedHand
  Intel has bought up OpenedHand, the UK-based Linux development company, folding its product line into the chip behemoth's mobile Linux effort, while promising to maintain its open-source developments. OpenedHand specialises in squeezing Linux onto small devices, so is ideally placed to support the new generation of what Intel …
• US to give some rendition info at Gitmo trial — The Register
  UK courts may let Brit spies keep schtum
  High Court beaks have allowed a further week for arguments in the case of Binyam Mohamed, the one-time UK resident facing a US military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay. The postponement comes following an announcement by America that Mohamed's military defence team will now be furnished with some information regarding his …
• Thus passes to C&W — The Register
  Buyer reveals company already bought (mostly)
  Thus, the company formerly known as Scottish Telecom and owner of the Demon Internet brand so beloved by an aging demographic, has recommended its shareholders accept an 180 pence offer from Cable & Wireless that will result in the delisting of the business. Cable & Wireless originally offered 165 pence a share for the company …
• Yes! It's the upside down car! — Reg Hardware
  Drive up walls and across ceilings
  A car's been launched that’s so cool, it’ll make James Bond switch gadget providers. Because although this four-wheeler can’t shoot rockets or travel underwater, in can drive upside down. The Zero Gravity Micro R/C car can drive up walls The Zero Gravity Micro R/C car from online retailer Firebox employs an “advanced …
• Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB media player — Reg Hardware
  Review Burdened with a fair amount of frankly pointless functionality
  When details of the Creative Zen X-Fi PMP began to leak out, many thought it would replace the Zen Vision W. As soon as you get the X-Fi out of the box you realise this is not the case. The Vision W had a 4.3in screen, but the X-Fi makes do with a mere 2.5in panel. So what we have here is an MP3 player with ideas above its …
• Federation borgs asset org — Channel Register
  FAST and IiS - together at last
  The Federation Against Software Theft is joining forces with Investors in Software - which promotes the use of software asset management. The two organisations will keep their brands and their different focuses. Historically the Federation has lobbied government for stronger action against software pirates and helped bust …
• Sony coughs to third-gen PSP power problem — Reg Hardware
  Brighter LCD = shorter battery life
  Sony has admitted that the new PlayStation Portable 3000’s brighter, richer display has shortened the handheld console’s battery life. The PSP-3000's brighter screen (bottom) cuts battery life by 20 to 30 minutes In an interview with website Gamespot, John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing at Sony Computer …
• Anti-Kremlin website owner shot dead in police custody — The Register
  Ingushetian intrigue
  Russian police in the troubled region of Ingushetia shot dead a prominent web journalist on Sunday night, shortly after he was taken into custody. Magomed Yevloyev was arrested after getting off a flight in Nazran, Ingushetia. Kaloi Akhilgov, a lawyer close to the Ingushetiya.ru website run by Yevloyev, said Yevloyev was taken …
• Sony's slips out slender, sensory Walkman — Reg Hardware
  IFA Touchy-feely
  Sony has extended its Walkman MP3 player range with a slim and sophisticated design that also bosts mood-sensing technology, the company claimed. Sony's S series Walkman: super slim The S series models are 7.5mm thick, making it Sony’s “slimmest Walkman ever”. Family members also have a 2in, 240 x 320 LCD screen that …
• MSI intros cut-price Linux mini-laptop — Reg Hardware
  Other models get hard drive boost
  MSI has made some modifications to its Wind line of Small, Cheap Computers, upping the storage capacity of the standard model and introducing a cheaper model. MSI's Wind U90: smaller screen, lower price The low-cost Wind matches the spec of its pricier stablemates but comes in at £269 ($485/€332) instead of £329 ($593/€406 …
• Medical isotope scarcity as Dutch reactor goes titsup — The Register
  Terrorism fears lead to 'perfect storm'
  A "looming crisis" faces the world of nuclear medicine, as unexpected shutdowns at nuclear reactors producing vital medical isotopes are seriously affecting world supplies, according to reports. Experts in the field are calling for concerted international action to stop such events happening again. All five of the world's main …
• Neo-Nazi forum hacked — The Register
  Blood & Honour, cloak and dagger
  German anti-fascist hackers have broken into the secure forum server of one of the world's largest neo-Nazi groups, Blood & Honour, and copied more than 30,000 pieces of data. Blood & Honour, founded back in 1987 in the UK by Ian Stuart Donaldson, leader of the notorious skinhead band Skrewdriver, has been banned in Germany …
• McKinnon supporters plan Home Office demo — The Register
  Last gasp plea
  Friends and family of accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon are planning a protest outside the Home Office at 4pm on Tuesday (2 September). Last week the European Court of Human Rights declined to intervene in preventing McKinnon's extradition to the US on hacking offences. Following the earlier rejection of appeals in the …
• Vodafone says termination rate clampdown would hit the poor — The Register
  Pull the other one
  Vodafone today claimed 40 million Europeans will be forced to drop their mobile phone service if EU-led moves to scrap the current call termination charging system go ahead. Pay as you go users who make fewer outgoing calls would face big retail price hikes if operators lost revenues, the firm said. Those typically poorer …
• Being jitter free is important — The Register
  DataDirect discusses Apple's Final Cut, disses Isilon
  "It's important to be jitter-free whilst performing full-bandwidth ingests." What on earth is DataDirect Networks CTO Dave Fellinger talking about? He is explaining why his company's S2A9900 storage box is so great. Apparently other storage products can support as many as three Apple Final Cut Mac workstations doing …
• Bet against the bubble - how to head off a subprime crisis — The Register
  More speculation, not less, is the key
  We all know what to do about this subprime mess, the credit-crisis final-end-of-capitalism farrago, don't we? Hang the bankers, hang them high, banish greed and stupidity from the human soul, bring in a very real change to our mass, crass, consumerism and usher in a society free from the shackles of late stage fiancierism? OK, …
• Government data protection standards are protected data — The Register
  We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you
  As yet another laptop full of confidential data goes up for sale on Ebay – this one belonging to Charnwood Borough Council - the government's failure to set and publicise standards for wiping data makes it inevitable that there will be many more, and worse, incidents of this kind. “Wiping data” may sound easy – to the non- …
• iRiver readies Euro revival — Reg Hardware
  IFA
  iRiver, the one-time major MP3 player maker that failed to keep up with Apple and was forced to retrench to its native Korea, relaunched itself into Europe at IFA this week. To mark the occasion, it launched a couple of new media players, but it's pitching them at the designer end of the market. Just in case that doesn't work …
• Does an imported PS3 need power conversion kit? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A
  My son was recently given a present of a PS3 which was purchased in America. I have been told that he should not use it here without the use of a "Power step-down converter". Is this correct? If so what size of converter should I purchase?

Sunday, 31 August 2008

• Pillar rains on EMC's parade — The Register
  Pugnacious Pillar Data boss does workmanlike job on Chuck's wagon
  Pillar Data is raining insults on EMC's CX4 usable capacity parade. Chuck Hollis, VP for tech alliances at EMC, reckons EMC's CX4 delivers 70 per cent of its raw capacity to users as usable capacity and pooh-poohs HP EVA and NetApp FAS arrays for only delivering 48 per cent and 34 per cent respectively in the same Exchange …